Snake Charmer
by xfucktheglasses
Summary: Being a leader is akin to being a phoenix. You're always rising from the ashes.—SasuSaku, SuiKa.
1. ūnus

**dedication:** to V and my Soul Mate. Y'all should know who you are.  
**summary: **Being a leader is akin to being a phoenix. You're always rising from the ashes.  
**notes:** Only warning I will be giving is that there are OC's in this one. But they're twelve and kind of stupid. I promise you'll love them right off the bat.

* * *

「**SNAKE CHARMER**」

This time of year was beautiful—the very start of fall with the sky at its bluest and the trees slowly, slowly beginning to drop one leaf a day. The breeze is cool and welcoming after a season filled of unbearable heat and dry air and the entire village seems to be basking in the humidity. The afternoon is cool; sun slowly beginning it's descent from the sky, controlling the wind and making a perfect combination of weather.

He stood on the balcony of his office, hands gripping the metal railings and staring down at his village with hidden approbation in his sole eye. He did this a lot, standing out on the balcony and watching the city that rose from nothingness boom with life; villagers wandering to and fro, merchants calling out their latest sale, shinobi walking among them battered and bruised from another successful mission.

Otogakure was a fine work.

"Sensei!"

He listened to three hollow thuds and he slowly turned around to acknowledge his students.

"We've returned with the cat!"

They were all messy—clothes marred with dirt and mud, arms and every inch of their skins angry and red with claw-scratches. It would seem they had more trouble than he had originally thought.

He smirked, "Well done."

One of the two boys walked towards him, handing him the black cat.

"Scarecrow is always running off," he drawled, noncommittally. "And how did you manage to capture him?"

He watched them take off their headsets, wincing when the wire feathered one of the many scratches on their bodies.

"Ryuu came up with a plan," the single girl of the three said, begrudgingly. "We singled him out in an alley and Yukio caught him."

"I see." He gave a satisfied nod, two of his fingers petting the cat's head. "Good. You're dismissed for the day."

"That's it?!"

He paused, mid-turning back to the scenery, sparing the girl a glance and a raised eyebrow.

"You call _that_ training?!"

"And what do you call training, Eiko?"

She glared at him with her brown eyes, huffing and crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I don't know—hand to hand combat? A match to see who can pin who first? Anything but chasing a c_at_ all over the village!"

He nodded his head, slowly, squatting down and releasing the cat; he watched it run off into his office, quickly hiding under one of the furniture. His eye rose up to look at the angry girl from under his dark lashes, lips contorted into a neutral frown. He had come to realize there is always a knucklehead in a team. Eiko just happened to be the one in his.

"You have missed the entire purpose of your mission, I see."

"Che?"

"Explain to me your tactics, before you managed to capture Scarecrow." He stood back up to his full height, the ends of his lavender haori ruffling with the soft breeze. "Go on—Yukio?"

The blond boy swallowed, thickly before explaining their futile attempts at capturing the cat individually; the thorn bushes in the forest, the mishap at the training grounds and all the merchants' baskets destroyed before they regrouped and begrudgingly agreed to form a plan.

He had sent them off with their training session before noon; it was close to four in the afternoon. It took them quite a while to come to the realization, not that it dawned on them why they were successful.

"I see," he said, "So you _worked together_ to capture Scarecrow."

They paused and Ryuu's blue eyes brightened.

"A lesson in teamwork, sensei?"

"Indeed."

"Bah!" Eiko pouted, looking away. "I'm leaving. I suppose tomorrow its gardening, again?"

His single eye gleamed with minor amusement. "Who knows?"

She glared at him before she took off, her teammates soon following after bidding him a more polite goodbye. He watched them disappear from view, lips twitching at the corners. A few minutes passed before his mood sobered up and thoughts about the village's progress consumed him.

He was freshly twenty-two, maelstrom of emotions finally at rest after a lifetime of anger. The village's rebuilding began just as soon as the Fourth Shinobi War ended, upon finding survivors of Orochimaru's experiments struggling to survive in the barren village. One more village for an ally would do good for the villages now at a settled peace and a leader was appointed upon its rise as a proper settlement rather than one of makeshift.

And who else could lead Otogakure but the man that lived there for roughly three years?

Uchiha Sasuke hadn't had another choice but to cut his slowly rekindling bonds with his teammates and accept the duty, becoming Otokage and giving the wayward villagers a motivation of sort. It had been a messy beginning, but a system was eventually established and an academy had opened and Uzumaki Karin had appeared at his front door, angry and refusing to live in any village other than this one with anyone other than him.

"Hey, idiot."

Speaking of the devil.

Sasuke spared her a glance. "Shouldn't you be somewhere."

"Shouldn't you be doing your paperwork?"

He scoffed. "I was handling the monsters."

Karin snorted, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "The village isn't all too happy with the mess they caused, you know."

"So I assume." He watched the village for a second longer before turning his back to the scenery and walking back into his office. "How is the hospital?"

She sat on one of the two chairs positioned in front of his desk, crossing a leg over the other and resting her chin on her palm. "Well. Obviously, since I am running it."

"But?"

Karin sneered at him just as he lifted his head, his single eye staring at her antic with empty annoyance.

"We need more medics, Sasuke."

He stared at her.

"And I am only doing the best I can." She sighed. "I'm not a medic, you know that. I am a sensor."

"So what are you asking?"

Karin's red eyes locked with his dark one, an eyebrow rising as if explaining how blind he tended to make himself come off as. "Get me Haruno Sakura so we can train our shinobi and kunoichi to become medics."

His jaw tensed and he swallowed forcefully enough to cause his Adam's apple to protest. Denying her request was at the tip of his tongue, but the rational side of him knew that what she said—what she demanded—was right. And the wellbeing of the village depended on it. Karin was not a medic, but she knew the basic and the most she could do was allow any injured to bite her arm.

But giving her chakra away every time a battered shinobi was brought through the door was not good. Not for her… His eyes lowered to her concealed abdomen… And not for her child.

"I…" He glared. "I will make sure to contact Konoha's Hokage."

"Good. And tell that asshole I say hello, while you're at it."

Sasuke rolled his eye and scoffed. "How about you go and debrief the genin team being sent to Iwa."

Karin threw him a haughty glare before walking out. Sasuke took out an empty scroll and began to write an old friend a letter.

.

.

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	2. duo

**dedication:** to you guys.  
**summary:** Being a leader is akin to being a phoenix. You're always rising from the ashes.  
**notes:** thank you guys for such a positive feedback! also! about something within the second scene in this chapter, "nana" means seven, or in the context used, seventh.

* * *

**「2」**

The Memorial was a nice cool gray, standing tall and silent at the heart of the cemetery. There was a ring of flowers going around it, and right at the base of it, sat more flowers that visitors would place in honor of a loved one lost. Names were engraved from the very top, down to the very bottom and as he stood there, in front of it, with his hands in the pockets of his nin-pants, he stared at the names that meant the most to him.

The wind ruffled his messy blond hair; he pursed his lips, closed is blue eyes and said a very quick prayer before looking up and watching a hawk head straight to the Hokage Tower.

Sighing, he looked down at the memorial for one last time before turning and walking away.

Konoha was always warm; fall was no different. Fall was actually his favorite season to watch unfold, watching the leaves of the infamous village slowly turn orange and yellow before falling to the ground. Fall is the season that gave justice to the village; one would argue it being spring or summer, when the leaves were at their greenest. But fall… Fall showed the gradual way leaves died and made room for new ones.

Fall had a double-meaning, to the leaves.

Walking into the village, down the main roads, he grinned at the villagers that waved at him; greeting him both in a friendly manner and in one of respect. Gone were the days where he was looked at with disdain and disgust. He was finally a hero, in their eyes. And though it came with a trail of blood, he accepted it.

It wasn't long before he jumped up to the rooftops, making his way towards the balcony of his office where the hawk from earlier awaited him with patience.

He eyed it, half grinning because of whom its owner was—and, oh, he _knew_ who its owner was. "Wha'cha got there for me, huh?"

He untied the scroll from the hawk's leg and opened it, eyes scanning the neat calligraphy and slowly raising his eyebrows in a combination of disbelief and amusement. He turned back to the hawk, "Heh, whattaya know? Thanks, birdie, I'll send a reply soon, yeah?"

The hawk stared at him, tilting its head before taking flight and disappearing into the distance.

He ran a hand through his shaggy hair, placing the scroll on his desk and turning towards the door. "Moegi?"

The girl appeared a second later, "Yes, Hokage-sama?"

"Get me Sakura-chan, will ya?"

He dropped himself onto his chair as Moegi disappeared, sighing and running a hand through his hair again.

* * *

"Alright, shrimp. Today, we're going to—"

Sakura paused, standing straight and dropping her hands back to her side.

The breeze was insistent, in the training grounds—not cold, at all, but warm and refreshing. It was a rare day when Konoha's temperature dropped, but today wasn't one of them, thankfully. She shifted, half-turning to face her current hidden visitor with an eyebrow raised and her lips pursed to one side.

She raised an eyebrow, jutting her hip out and placing her hand over it. "Well, come out, then."

She watched Moegi approach, sheepish grin on her lips and rubbing at her forearm in embarrassment. "Sorry, Sakura, I know you teach Minori at this time but, ah…"

Sakura turned to face the girl, arms crossed in front of her chest. Moegi had grown up, over the years—a bit taller, a bit stronger and, while she wasn't away on missions, the Hokage's messenger. Sakura smirked at the girl, shaking her head to get her to stop stammering and letting it be known that she wasn't as annoyed as she was coming off.

"Naruto-sama has requested your presence," she finished.

Sighing, Sakura blew a raspberry, deflating and turning to Minori with an apologetic smile.

Her pupil was a clever little idiot; twelve-and-a-half and exceptional at chakra control. He made her think a lot about herself, when she was that age; surpassing her teammates even when they were packing massive amounts of power. She hand-picked him, giving him the offer to become her pupil upon lazily watching him train with his teammates on a day she went to see Hinata.

"Sorry, Minori," she sighed, ruffling his dark hair. "How about you practice on one of the injured puppies at the Inuzuka veterinary, today?" At his look of dejection and annoyance, she quickly added, "I _promise_ we'll get some actual training tomorrow!"

She turned around, walking after Moegi; she heard her student exhale an affirmation and she really did feel bad. As head of the hospital, her training sessions with Minori were always interrupted or she had to have him practice in her office while she went on rounds, went into surgeries with high ranked shinobi—once, she even walked in on him reading her paperwork and telling her a document of sort didn't seem to be beneficial. Not that he knew what he was talking about, as bright as he was.

Sakura sighed, stepping into the village's main roads and walking slowly as she greeted friends and patients she had once treated.

Konoha was different than what it had once been, in her youth. All the bad seeds were plucked out and life was synonymous with peace and comfort; shinobi went on missions without having to worry about leaving their village vulnerable to attacks, and their precious Nanadaime had to worry about paperwork more than anything else.

Of course, peace and comfort and stability came with sacrifices.

Sakura sighed, eyes glancing in the general direction that led towards the cemetery, the feeling of emptiness she housed in the hollow of her chest panging at the thought.

"Hey, Sakura."

She looked up, eyes brightening at the sight of her oldest friend.

Sacrifices came in different forms.

Yamanaka Ino's sacrifice came in the shape of her father's death—dead in action, with no body to bury—and the prime of her youth subdued at being given a clan to lead at the age of sixteen. Sakura didn't think sixteen year olds were even _allowed_ to lead clans.

"Ino!" She linked an arm around her friend's. "Fancy meeting you around here, Miss Interrogator. Where you heading to?"

"Nowhere in particular," Ino shrugged. "I just closed the flower shop for my lunch break."

Sakura's eyes brightened, "If you walk me to Naruto's office, I'll keep you company."

Ino stared at her, a crooked grin on her lips, before heading in the general direction of the Hokage Tower.

* * *

Naruto quickly lifted his head up from his desk, taking a deep inhale and furiously blinking his eyes to will any sort of sleep out of them.

She slipped through the crack of the door, head still turned to face the lobby as she grinned and laughed at a conversation slowly going into a pause. When she turned around, Naruto couldn't help but beam at her. Sakura was one of his best friends and just the sight of her—a familiar face of the past, the present and the future, as lame as he reminded himself that sounded—was really soothing.

There wasn't much that changed with his silly best friend; same pink hair, short and choppy and messy with the sides framing her face just a bit longer than the rest of her hair and the same yellow-green eyes that twinkled even when she didn't mean to look so happy. If anything, Naruto mused, eyeing the way the loose hem of her red haori would sway from side to side with her steps, what could have changed the most about Haruno Sakura was her choice of clothing and the Yin Seal in the center of her forehead.

"Hiya, Sakura-chan!"

"Save it, moron, I know you were sleeping." She glared at him, placing her hands on her hips. "What do you want, I was rather _busy_."

Naruto deflated a bit, a pout on his lips.

He stood up from his seat, taking to pacing back and forth around his office, one hand holding onto his other wrist, behind him. Thanks to Moegi and—sometimes, when she wasn't busy—Shizune, his office was rather _neat_. Neater than anything he would actually keep, anyway. They should see his room; they'd have an aneurysm or ten.

"Well, Sakura-chan," he started off, still pacing, brow knitted together in concentration. "I have a new mission for you—an _extended_ mission."

Sakura snorted. "Naruto, we both know I'm not taking up missions, right now—I have the hospital to take care of as well as Minori."

Naruto shook his head. "Sakura-chan, this is needed."

He paused and spared her a glance, watching as her pose was yet to relax.

She pursed her lips, breaking their eye contact and looking down at the burnt-orange rug. He took a low exhale, slumping his shoulders because he felt as if he just tamed the beast for a few minutes—enough to make her next journey clear. And honestly, over-thinking this was making him more nervous than he should be—he was Hokage, damn it all!

It was just that Sakura had a very nasty temper—nastier than when they were younger, actually. And he just didn't know where they stood, okay? Not him and her, but her and the other idiot. Naruto was ten different kinds of dorky and stupid but he was also observant and he could see that relationship was delicate; like trying to channel chakra to the soles of his nin-sandals to be able to walk on water.

"Give me more details," she drawled, crossing her arms in front of her chest and leaning against the edge of his desk.

Eyeing her, Naruto swallowed thickly and turned to pace some more, making sure to not face her as he said, "Your mission is to go on an extended leave… To Otogakure to help my cousin train some medical shinobis."

"_What_?"

"Now, now, Sakura-chan—"

"Naruto."

"It's for the good of both villages—"

"Naruto."

"Think about it! They're our ally—"

"Naruto."

"And we all know my cousin doesn't know anything—that loser—so obviously they need someone great and beautiful and—"

"_Naruto_."

"…Yes, Sakura-chan?"

He watched her inhale, watched some of the folds of the wide obi around her torso get lost as her mid-section expanded at the extra intake of air. Sakura was pinching the bridge of her nose, eyes half-lidded and stare downcast as if pondering, thinking… Perhaps coming to terms. Naruto hoped for the latter, it'd make his life easier.

He hated his friends and the lovers spat that came with it.

Or something like that, anyway.

"Fine."

Naruto eyed her from under his messy forelocks. "Che?"

She didn't respond, but nodded her head, sharp chin held up high in the air and small shoulders squared as if challenging whatever the Kages before them were going to throw her way. Not that Naruto thought it was anything _like that_; it was just Sasuke after all. He winced at the thought—that could be good or bad.

.

.

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	3. tria

**dedication:** to JinnySkeans because she's like my soul mate.  
**summary:** Being a leader is akin to being a phoenix. You're always rising from the ashes.  
**notes:** Happy Valentine's day, everyone!

* * *

**「3」**

Sometimes, Karin sat on the windowsill of her office, in the hospital of her new home, and thought about things.

Things like the life she'd lived so far; living in Kusagakure as if she was born there, as if her roots came from there, as if they _were_ there, buried deep into the soil. She fought for Kusa for a while; entered the Chuunin Exams with a Kusagakure headband around her forehead. But you know what, she wasn't even from there.

She was a survivor—not that Karin ever saw herself as anything else—of a lost clan; one of its only living seeds. Red hair and red eyes and the instinct to live and survive even if it meant a lifetime of solitude. But she wasn't exactly alone, apparently; who would have thought the stupid idiot with a grin as bright as his hair and a chakra as soothing as the look in his eyes would end up being her long lost cousin?

It was kind of stupid, but it made sense.

Their blood was scattered around the entire country—or it was anyway.

Now there was just her and him and the fetus growing inside her womb.

But it wasn't just thoughts about her family and bonds and life and long lost siblings. Sometimes, she even thought about what she was doing and that yes, this was the right choice because, yes, Sasuke tried to kill her—god, he almost succeeded, god, she had _seen_ death ready to take her soul… And yes, she had been bitter for the first few years.

But Sasuke was comfort, to say the least.

Sasuke was someone she knew and—this part would make her laugh, sarcastically—trusted. Because it wasn't just about how he almost killed her and how she thought their bond ended there. It was months of being on the run, living off of tents and trees and caves and abandoned sheds. It was about splitting up duties—Sasuke the fire, Suigetsu the hunting, Juugo the washing and she the lookout—and sometimes even telling stupid stories and sharing sharp grins that disappeared a second later.

Sasuke was family.

And even more so, sometimes it was about Suigetsu.

About encounters in the woods or secret visits to her home, where he'd blend with the water dripping from her sink and reform himself, leaning against her counter and watching her study scrolls. It was about being in love with the asshole and keeping it a secret to herself and no one else, thinking about how he'd have a home here but how Suigetsu wanted everything but a home and, much less, stability.

It was about carrying his child with him not knowing and Karin wishing he'd never find out.

Karin would sit on the windowsill of her office and ponder about when the screw-ups would end.

She sighed, pushing her glasses back up the bridge of her nose without much attention. Maybe she should just go and bother Sasuke… She looked at the clock hanging above the door to her office and pursed her lips; he was probably out training with his genin team.

Instead, she stood up and slipped onto her desk chair and began to read character profiles for her first set of med-nins.

* * *

Sasuke squinted his eye to protect it from the sun's glare as he looked up at the top of the tallest tree in Training Ground Four. His genin team stood around him, cat-scratches less angry and clothes clean and energies ready to be used up to the brim. He smirked at the thought—they were _just_ getting started.

Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that Eiko was a cocky little runt and Ryuu had trouble with teamwork despite how bright he was and Yukio barely uttered a sound, they would not be going through the torture of basic teamwork training. One that Sasuke remembered quite well, to say the very least.

"Alright," he said, turning to face his team. "Today we're going to practice our chakra control."

"Yipee," Eiko hissed, sarcastically, crossing her arms in front of her chest and pouting.

Sasuke would have grown annoyed—but being twenty-two and living all he had lived and being a _Kage_, for the most part, patience grew in him like wildfire. He merely stared at her with a blank eye before saying, "Your task is to scratch the surface of the highest point of the tree with your kunai."

"And _how_ exactly is this even training," Eiko asked, raising a brow and staring at him in the eye. "All we have to do is climb up the branches—"

"No."

Sasuke took out a kunai from his pouch and turned away from them.

"You have to concentrate chakra to the soles of your boots." He walked towards the tree and began to climb it, his speed picking up until the wind harshly whistled in his ears and his eardrums crackled. He scratched at the very tip of the tree before putting his kunai away and looking down at the three twelve-year olds.

He jumped down, hopping from one tree to the other until he landed in front of them, arms crossed in front of his chest.

They stared at him in awe before turning their eyes to the tree then back to him.

"Easy, right?" He asked, lightly mocking his female student.

Eiko turned to him, eyes wide before she grabbed her composure and scoffed, fixing the hem of her dark blue tank-top. "O-of course! I can do this in my _sleep_."

"Sensei, how…?"

Sobering his smirk down, he turned away from Eiko and stared down at Yukio who was looking away, wringing his hands behind his back with unease. Sasuke knew what the kid meant, surprisingly; so he sighed and closed his eye, concentrating his chakra down to the soles of his boots.

"Just focus your chakra to one location—down to your feet." He cracked his eye open and watched as their feet began to glow blue with their chakras. "Now keep it that way, don't lose your focus. Yes, like that—now climb the tree."

They didn't even make it halfway before they dropped back down with loud thuds.

Sasuke sighed, jumping off to a tree branch and taking a seat. "Try again."

* * *

"Your mission, Haruno Sakura, is to help our ally village to reinforce their security and decrease their death rate by training—"

"Sakura-sensei?"

Sakura blinked, looking up from staring down at the ground while listening to Naruto's debrief. She turned to look over her shoulder just as Naruto tilted his head to stare at... "Minori."

Minori was all dark hair and dark eyes and pale skin, star student from the academy, graduating not at the very top, but still with flying colors. Sakura grew very fond of him very quickly, but sometimes he could be a little _too much_. Currently, he was frowning, messy hair hiding the hitai-ate around his forehead, chest rising and falling with frustration and hands clenched at his side.

"I heard you were leaving."

"Minori, you've interrupted the Hokage while he was speaking."

Minori's dark eyes turned towards Naruto, bowing quickly and apologizing. But as he rose back to his full height, he stared at Sakura with irritation and panic. "You're _leaving_."

"Yes," Sakura responded, carefully. "I have arranged something for your training; Shizune—"

"I don't _want_ Shizune-san to be my sensei. _You_ are my sensei; only you can be my sensei. I—I'm the weakest link in my team and I feel like I can do so much under your training; please don't give up on me!"

Sakura turned to lock eyes with Naruto, her lips parting as if she wished to respond but having no words to say.

"Please take me with you!"

She froze, then, exhausted sigh hitching at the hollow of her throat. Now that was something she had _not_ been expecting from the little runt; travel with her? Did he honestly think she was only going to be gone for a few days—a week, maybe? Sakura furrowed her brow, sucking on her lower lip. She won't see Konoha for _months_; she can't possibly do that to the boy, let alone his parents.

"Minori," she began, turning around and walking towards him. "This is definitely my fault. When I said I'd teach you, I never thought so many things would get in the way of my duty to—"

"That's not what bothers me!"

Sakura shook her head, "I can't take you with me."

Minori furrowed his brow, "But why not?"

"Your parents—"

"My parents are never around, Sakura-sensei, I swear this would be like a favor to them!" Minori's wild eyes turned towards Naruto. "Hokage-sama, please, tell her—tell her that Katou Tatsuki and Katou Yamazaki are always on missions!"

From his spot behind his desk, Naruto stared at the boy with calculating blue eyes. He did, actually, remember sending some Katous on missions, a lot—jounins, both, and so they were required to be out of the village a lot. But it wasn't that, so much as being presented with the fact that their son was left alone a lot, due to their demanding jobs and dedication to the village. Naruto knew a lot about loneliness and knew it wasn't something Minori—or any kid—should experience.

His eyes turned to Sakura, who kept trying to calm the boy down.

He knew his best friend and knew she was quick to get attached to people, especially ones that she connected with. He sighed, and stood up from his chair, walking around so he could lean against the edge of the desk. "Maybe he's right, Sakura-chan."

"Naruto!"

"No, I'm serious," he grinned at Minori, "Think about it. I was twelve when the Pervy Sage took me out of the village for my training and I was gone for about two years, then. Besides, it's almost perfect—you can teach Minori while you help teach the future med-nins over there, too."

Sakura studied him, soaking in everything he said. She _did_ feel awful and saddened at parting with the kid because she felt as if she'd failed him in a way; set his hopes up high and letting them slowly shrink until they would one day be gone. Sakura didn't want that; the thought of leaving something half-done—if even half, she felt like she hadn't taught Minori a single thing—left a sour taste in her mouth.

She turned back to look at Minori who was looking back up at her with eager eyes. She placed a gloved hand on his head and shot him a grin and a wink. "Okay, then."

* * *

"That's enough," Sasuke sighed, dropping down from his branch and walking closer towards his students.

The sun was setting and the training grounds were getting too dark for any proper training, anyway. Neither of the three had reached the goal-point, but—as Sasuke had expected—Ryuu was the closest to reach it before tumbling back down to the ground and bringing his teammates down with him.

He didn't exactly think he was disappointed—they were still learning training that the academy didn't brush on; something most instructors were to teach their students in basic training sessions. And they did happen to get a bit farther than he had expected; it was a good job—decent. He eyed them as they stood in front of him, breathing hard and dirtied with blood and mud.

"Why'd you stop us?" Eiko was quick to ask, glare in her eyes and hair a tangled mess.

Sasuke stared at her and then at the two boys. "It's getting dark. We'll continue tomorrow."

"But we haven't even reached the top like you!"

"And that's fine."

Eiko scoffed, looking away and glaring at the defenseless trees.

Sasuke rolled his eye, turning around and leading them out of the grounds. Yukio and Ryuu were quick to follow after him and, as per usual, Eiko brought up the rear—sulking and grumbling.

The village was set alight with the streetlights all turned on and the stands opened late turning their lanterns on. Most of the shops were already closed, villagers heading home to rest and be with their families; about seventy percent of the village was filled with Orochimaru's old experiments and prisoners—people that had some sort of trauma and rancor. Fear and anxiety, even.

Some would still cause some sort of disruption at least twice a week, and that was fine. Sasuke didn't think he could blame them; moving on and starting over was very difficult and Sasuke knew that all too well.

Mostly, though, people were just glad they were given a chance; trading contracts were made, where goods would be brought in so they could be sold as well as natural vegetation and the like that grew in Oto's wild life. It was an admirable sight to see; how something could pick itself back up from the ruins it had been, on the ground.

Sasuke thought that was the part he liked most, about the place.

Not being Kage, because as ambitious as he was—and would always be—he had never really dreamed of holding such a title. But after everything—after another war being over and so many reforms made to the life of a shinobi, all the battles he had, and all the teachers he had… After everything was said and done, Sasuke was the Shodai Otokage.

He gave a curt nod as his students went their separate ways, towards their homes. Sasuke continued to walk down the path towards the Tower.


	4. quattuor

**dedication:** to lilithkiss because omg she drew me FANART SDFKSF and to Rhea, Emily, TK and Sonya.  
**summary:** Being a leader is akin to being a phoenix. You're always rising from the ashes.  
**notes:** thank you guys so much for the amazing support.

* * *

**「4」**

"Ready?"

Minori looked towards her, dark hair shadowing his eyes as a gentle breeze blew by. They stood by the gates of the village, packs over their shoulders and chakra reserves stocked for their travel. Sakura crookedly grinned down at him, turning back to face the village as it continued on in its rush hour, completely oblivious of the fact that two of her children were leaving.

"Take a good look at her, shrimp," she said, turning around and walking towards the gates. "It's the last time you'll see her in months."

* * *

Sasuke stood on the balcony of his office, antsy with a need to move around and do something productive. Paperwork was… Well, boring and ate at his patience very quickly. He tended to do this, a lot, more than he ever thought he would, actually. Sasuke was a responsible man—irrational and impulsive, but responsible nonetheless.

Yet he stood outside his office, watching his village with a half-lidded eye and a soft frown on his lips. His students were on a break; he'd given them the entire day to figure out what they were doing wrong and _why _he was taking their training so slow. The fact that it was taking them so long—even Ryuu—was ridiculous.

But with time, Sasuke grew to be a patient man and with that, he'd swallow the need to tell them their teamwork was _worse _than his own genin team, when he was younger. Sending them on a mission like that would be complete and utter suicide.

"Hey, stupid."

He grunted, more than used to the insult that was more or less a petname of hers.

Karin walked up and stood next to him, hands at her hips and glass of her spectacles gleaming under the sun. "Where are the little runts?"

"Hopefully getting their shit together."

She threw her head back and laughed, red hair falling down her back. "This is payback, asshole—complete payback."

Sasuke glowered, narrowing his eye and fighting the urge to throw her off the balcony. Quiet resumed as she sobered up and they stood there, side by side, watching the village that had been their makeshift home once, in a past not too far away from that very moment right then. It was almost sad in a nostalgic way; Otogakure had never been what it was now, when they still fell in allegiance with it, for the first time.

To end up where they had first started… Rather sad, Sasuke mused. Pathetic, even.

Perhaps Karin felt the same way, next to him.

"C'mon," she said, back-handing his arm and leading the way back into his office. "It's time to change those wraps around your eye. Seriously, Sasuke, do you _really _need me to baby you and come remind you every time?"

He rolled his eye, following her and taking a seat on his chair. It wasn't that he needed a reminder—the way the bindings stretched and moved uncomfortably whenever he raised his eyebrow or changed his facial expression was crude enough to do that for him. His frown deepened as he lifted his hands and began to unbind the wraps from around his left eye.

Dropping the dirtied bindings on the ground, he opened his eye and wasn't at all surprised to see his surroundings blur. It was almost confusing—Sasuke could already feel the pounding migraine forming at the back of his head—everything was nice and clear from his right eye, but his left…

His left eye made everything blurry until every object, though making a sort of shape of what it was, was lost of all its details. He closed his right eye, slowly turning to face where Karin was crouched, getting new wrappings and whatever else it was she used to clean the sensitive skin around his eye.

She came off as nothing but a red blur.

Sasuke tried to pour all his concentration on his sight, almost demanding that everything clear up. He only stopped when he felt the familiar sensation—burning, uncontrollable burning that felt as if acid was being poured into his eye—of blood escaping out of his tear-ducts and overflowing.

He groaned, slapping a hand over it in an almost nostalgic manner.

"Oh for—you _idiot_." Karin hurried to his side, slapping his hand away and yanking at his chin so he would face her. "Shit, hold on."

Sasuke remained with his eyes closed, counting off the many times this had happened before. At the beginning, it happened _a lot_. Sasuke had still been seventeen and still reckless. Of course, back then he didn't use the bindings, yet. His vision hadn't gone that bad; just minor eye-bleeding when he tried to concentrate on his left eye.

It gradually grew worse until it became a nuisance for him and wrapping it up had been the best solution ever. He trained himself and his right eye so that nothing escaped him and his surroundings were always clear. Up to this day, Sasuke didn't have an answer to the entire problem; he had actually thought that upon transplanting his brother's eyes, his vision would be free of any threats.

Foolish thought, of course.

"Here," Karin hissed, gently beginning to wipe a damp rag under his lower eyelid, being careful when she got close to his eye. "You're never going to learn, you asshole. When exactly are you going to get through the fact that your eye got fucked up in that fight?!"

"Shut up," he sighed.

She clucked her tongue against her teeth, lifting his chin up and lightly opening his left eye by gently pressing two fingers on his lower eyelid and slowly pulling down. She continued to clean the entire top-left side of his face before beginning to bandage it up, tight and secure, his hair messily falling over his forehead.

"I deserve an award," she drawled, picking up all her utensils. "I deserve an award for putting up with you."

Sasuke waved his hand at her, ignoring any and all her comments. His migraine moved so every inch of his head throbbed and Sasuke groaned, leaning back in his seat and resting his forehead against his palm. Slowly, he began to doze off, not hearing when Karin left the office.

* * *

He came back into reality when he heard a small snort.

Sasuke sat up, eye snapped open and hand running down the length of his face. When his concentration was back, his eye landed on his three students standing on the other side of his desk. Eiko stood in between the two boys, arms crossed in front of her chest and magenta hair framing her face. Next to her, Ryuu and Yukio looked passive, half-bowing in respect and in greeting.

"Sasuke-sensei," Eiko began, tilting her head. "We think we know what the meaning of all this lame training is."

"Oh?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the surface of his desk. "It seems it didn't take you long."

Eiko scoffed, half grinning and jabbing an elbow at Ryuu's ribs.

Sasuke watched the interactions. Ryuu glared at her at the pain, rubbing at his ribs and sneering for a second before looking away. To the other side, Yukio stood still, not involving himself unless brought into the circle by one of the other two. As their sensei, that was his aim—to get them, maybe not to be _friends_, if they did not want to, but at least have trust and confidence in each other to leave their backs open and know the other is watching it for them.

"So tell me," he drawled, lacing his fingers and resting his chin atop them. "What is the epiphany you've stumbled upon?"

Eiko's grin was still intact as she said, "Obviously, sensei, you're pulling us back because you can't leave the village!"

Sasuke pressed his lips together into a thin line and tried not let his frown be too evident. Honestly, he wondered how they even managed to graduate the academy or what exactly he was thinking when he set them up to be a team—let alone _his_ team. Of course, they each had potential and with them getting a firm grasp on it, they'd be an amazing combination.

He just didn't think it'd take them this long to get past step one.

"No."

All three deflated.

He shook his head, leaning back in his seat, again, and staring at the three with a furrowed brow. "On the first test I gave you three, upon becoming a team—you realize why you all failed, correct?"

"Because we didn't get the bells," Ryuu said, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his nin-pants.

Sasuke nodded. "Correct. But it's not only that. There were two bells and three of you. I told you there was a reason for that." He stood up, heading towards the balcony. "You haven't figured out the answer and that is crucial to all of this. Find the answers—think back on your failures and analyze them, think on what I've told you and compare that to your actions and think about the reason why I didn't disband you even after your failure to that test. I don't want to see any of you until the answer is set in your heads."

"But—"

"Dismissed."

* * *

The fire crackled, low and dim as midnight slowly began to curl around them.

Sakura sat against a tree, keeping watch for the rest of the night. The moon was at its crescent shape and it glowed against the dark indigo sky. She smiled, softly, sparing it a glance before turning towards the small sleeping bag at her side. Minori was fast asleep, dark hair glued to his forehead with sweat.

He looked peaceful, thin lips lightly parted in soft snores.

They were halfway done with their traveling, spending the entire day moving through the trees. Times of peace granted them easy traveling without any setbacks by ambush attempts from other villages. But shinobi weren't foolish—time of peace didn't mean they would let their guards down and have no one keep watch while a teammate rested.

Sakura was a war veteran. She knew better than that—she didn't have a bone in her body that coaxed her to relax. She was a war child given the chance to turn twenty-two; seven years and she could still taste the bitter tang of blood and loss. It kept her up at night, sometimes, and it reminded her that where there was peace there was also chaos.

That's why when Minori had asked her where she would sleep, all she had been able to do was smile at her pupil and announce her job was to keep watch.

She sighed, leaning her head back against the trunk of the tree, staring up at the sky and almost demanding it to be morning.

* * *

"Alright, sensei, we think we got it this time."

Sasuke looked up from his paperwork the following morning, an eyebrow raised and his eye slowly narrowing down. It was way too soon for them to arrive back to his office with their facts set straight and he was beyond below giving them more credit than they deserved.

He sighed, dropping his pen and leaning back in his seat. "Go on."

Surprisingly, the one to walk forwards out of the three was Yukio. "Sensei, the reason why you're giving us all these small lessons is because we can't work together. So… So… You're trying to fix… that?"

It ended as a question and without a clue if he was right, but Sasuke figured that was because Yukio was quick to feel weird out of his comfort zone in the silence. He pressed his lips together, furrowing his brow and eyeing each of his students; Eiko and her sass, Ryuu and his confidence and Yukio and his lack of a spine.

"And how did you come to this conclusion?"

Eiko snorted. "Wasn't easy, I'll tell you that."

"Eiko and me got in another fight," Ryuu added with a sullen look towards her. "Then it kinda hit us… After Yukio screamed, anyway."

Sasuke turned to stare at Yukio who was hiding behind his blond forelocks. It was really hard to believe that they figured it all out at the second try; perhaps once he'd stop giving them enough credit, he began to give them less and less. His students were intelligent—even Eiko and her brashness. If they figured it out because of a small quarrel between teammates, then that was a start, was it not?

If they still didn't get it, at least they were on the right track now.

"Meet me at the training grounds after lunch," he said with a curt nod. He couldn't help but smirk as Ryuu and Eiko bumped their fists and Yukio smiled at them.

* * *

He dropped down in the middle of the training ground, hands stuffed in the pockets of his nin pants and hair ruffled from his roof-jumping. His students were scattered around the field, with Eiko sitting on a tree branch and Ryuu hiding in the shade while Yukio sat under the sun. He watched them with a certain blankness in his eye, lips contorted to a soft, neutral frown.

They made their way to stand in front of him and Sasuke shrugged off the opened lavender haori he wore atop his customary nin-attire. He smirked at them, completely amused at the way they followed all his movements with keen eyes.

"Alright," he said, taking one of his hands out of his pockets and extending it towards them. Two bells dangled from red strings that he held from the very tip. They jingled, softly, with the slow breeze that blew by. "Remember these?"

Eiko groaned, crossing her arms in front of her chest and blinking magenta hair out of her brown eyes. "Sensei—"

"You've come to the realization that you're being tested on how well you work with each other," Sasuke said, dropping his hand, bells jingling as they lightly banged against each other. "This is something you didn't know on the first try and did not realize even with the lessons I gave you. Now that it's clear, let's see how good you do." He turned his attention to Eiko, a light smirk tilting his lips. "Try not to get tied up this time."

He chuckled, disappearing as she lunged towards him.

"The most important thing for a shinobi," he said, reciting both himself and a lesson he learned long ago, reappearing behind her, "is to be able to hide yourself."

He substituted himself with a log as Eiko tried to lunge at him once more. He reappeared behind her, again, grabbing her by the wrist and throwing her away from his person. At his words, Yukio and Ryuu disappeared out of sight and as Sasuke looked around the field he gave a barely notable nod of satisfaction.

"Eiko," he began, but paused as he took note that he was alone.

He smirked, a bit of pride swelling his chest. She wasn't a lost cause, after all.

Sasuke stood at the center of the training grounds, stuffing his hands in his pockets after tying the bells to one of the pockets of his flak-jacket. He waited with patience, allowing only a certain amount of adrenaline to pump in his veins; this was one of the few moments of excitement he could feel, for now. That tangy taste of a workout that he missed so much. Overdoing it would send his students to the hospital with failure stamped on their foreheads yet again.

He bent his knees a bit in his battle stance, eye scanning the fields and all the possibilities of where they could be hiding. The static silence remained like that for a while, with Sasuke counting the intervals in between his heartbeat and trying to depict a song from the ringing in his ear. He cracked his knuckles just as—

"RYUU, NOW!"

Sasuke watched as the prodigy of his team appeared with the intentions to land a roundhouse kick. He quickly ducked, grabbing at the boy's ankle and swinging him back towards where he came but his next action came into a stop as he watched Eiko appear, grabbing her teammate's hands for leverage as Ryuu threw her towards him with all the strength he could muster.

Eiko dug into her pouch, taking out a set of shurikens and throwing them at him.

A distraction, Sasuke noted, ducking each of them and side-stepping the punch she aimed at his face. His eye grew wide, though, when he felt a brush of her fingers against his torso; the closest they had ever been to the bells.

"Damnit," he heard Eiko hiss, dropping to the ground in a squat, "So close!"

Sasuke smirked, pleased with the way things were going so far.

"Yukio," Ryuu said, already sprinting towards Sasuke.

On his part, Sasuke backed away, watching as all three of his students ran towards him, fists up and weapons out. Not exactly how it was supposed to go, when it came down to the test itself, but the results of what counted were beyond satisfying. Sasuke blocked, ducked and sidestepped each of their blows, allowing them to smack, hit, scratch each other on accident as he moved quicker to evade them.

"Come on, you guys," he drawled, grabbing Yukio's wrist and lightly twisting it back, pinning him against the floor. "You're doing better—still missing the point, but better than the first try."

"What exactly do you want?" Eiko screeched, pointing a finger towards him. "We're trying here!"

Sasuke looked up at her, his eye narrowed, slightly. "Do you know the answer to the test?"

"Yeah, to get the bells!"

"No."

On the first attempt at the bell test, it was a nostalgic event—more than Sasuke liked to admit. Eiko wound up tied and Ryuu and Yukio, unlike he and Sakura, didn't get the clue of sharing their food with her regardless if he had prohibited it. Sasuke had been furious at their lack of understanding and refused to see them for an entire week.

Perhaps his own sensei wouldn't have even given them a second chance, the way he did. Perhaps he'd grown soft over the course of a new peaceful era.

"Guess again," he said, looking down at Yukio's blond head.

But try as they might, they didn't seem to come to the realization. Sasuke didn't think he could even blame them, anymore. All three of his students were like any other kid from the village, descendants of victims of Orochimaru's experiments or even experiments themselves. Working together was not something hostility or living the life they'd live gave room for. It was why he was putting such emphasis on the matter.

But that wasn't their fault, either. It was just the way they were brought up. Sasuke hoped that with time that quality would dissipate out of the lifestyle of Oto villagers.

"Give us the answer, then," Eiko said, challengingly.

His eye didn't move from hers as he muttered, "Teamwork."

They stared at him, wide eyed and Sasuke all but sighed.

"You were there," he said, letting go of Yukio and taking a couple of steps back. "You were getting it; you just kept thinking the bells were the main goal. They're not."

"But—"

"There are two of them and three of you, for a reason." He crossed his arms in front of his chest, tilting his head back. "Their purpose is to see if you can forget your own interest—in your case, wearing that hitai-ate around your forehead and continue to be called a shinobi of Otogakure—and successfully work together under circumstances such as these.

"You fought in unison," he gave a curt nod, "Or tried. And that's a start. To successfully carry out a mission, the duties are done by team. That's not to say you can't have individual strength because you can and you do. But teamwork is essential. To be out of sync with your team while on a mission is suicide. It not only jeopardizes the mission but your lives as well."

Ryuu ran a hand through his hair, "All this… was just for teamwork?"

"Yes."

"But…"

"That is why you failed on your first attempt," he said, looking up at the sky. "You failed to disobey my rules and instead went along with it. I told you not to feed Eiko and you did just that, whereas, you were supposed to give her food because she is your teammate." He looked back down at them, half smirking. "A ninja must see underneath the underneath. Out there, in the ninja world, those who break rules are trash. This is what you're taught in the academy—and that's true. But those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash."

"Spoken like a true sensei, Sasuke."

He snapped his head to the side, watching as Sakura stood by the field, hands at her hips and a boy about the same age as his students at her side.

Sasuke was still halfway through riding the initial shock of hearing her familiar voice and seeing her standing there, looking smug and travel-weary all in one. The ringing in his ears gave him a headache but he tried to cover it by muttering a distracted, "Sakura."

.

.

.


	5. quīnque

**dedication:** to Rhea for fangirling Team Stupid with me and giggling as we talk about shippy things. Y'all should know who Team Stupid is, by now, it's OBVS.  
**summary:** Being a leader is akin to being a phoenix. You're always rising from the ashes.  
**notes:** this fic is not one of those she-healed-his-eye fics. I don't think she's going to and I honestly don't think Sasuke wants her to, either.

* * *

**「5****」**

Karin leaned her head back against the wall of her office's bathroom. She spat, gasping for air and swiping the back of her hand across her mouth. She felt weak; as if she had no energy—no chakra—left in her body and all she could do was sit on the ground, in the bathroom, with a toilet as her best friend.

"What the fuck has my life come to," she muttered to herself, closing her eyes and willing her head to stop spinning.

She sat there for a while, trying to regain her strength and her composure, but she kept feeling as if she wanted to bend over the rim of her toilet, again, and puke everything out. Karin groaned, sitting up and leaning over to flush the toilet, one hand on her womb. The sound of the water flushing was like music to her ears as she slowly lifter herself off the ground; it was like an alarm clock—a reminder that she was above this.

Uzumaki Karin was above being sprawled on the ground and having morning sickness.

She stared at herself in the mirror, sliding her glasses off to wash her face, rub at her eyes until they at least looked a bit less watery, and wash her mouth. She finger combed her hair, willing herself to look as normal—as okay—as she knew she could pull off. The last thing she wanted was to look like a mess around her subordinates.

Deeming herself decent, she walked out of the bathroom, sniffing as she closed the door behind her.

Her office was spacious—neat and tidy and all business. It wasn't that Karin wasn't a homey kind of girl; so much as she didn't think she'd be in the hospital for long.

She was not a medic-nin.

She knew Sasuke knew this.

And she also knew that she was placed as head of the hospital off of a whim—a lack of having anyone trustworthy to take over. Her position was temporary at best; Karin's known Sasuke for years now and, as the clever girl she was, she knew his thinking patterns. He was itching to have her as police chief. Her tracking abilities were crucial to that position.

At the stage they were in, in the village—now finally stable and growing—with getting shinobi and kunoichi alike with amazing chakra control to train as medic-nins, everything was going to fall into place, at last.

It was just a matter of time, she thought as she opened the curtains of her windows to allow some sunlight to illuminate the spacious room.

She stared at the village, her hand slowly finding her womb again.

To believe Oto would turn to this—a series of jails turned into a full out village; a home for all of Orochimaru's prisoners and experiments. It was something surreal that still left her reeling whenever she thought about it. Karin's first home—first home that she _remembered_—was destroyed. And it turned out that the home she had before that—the home of her _clan_; goddamn, she was part of a close to extinct clan—was destroyed, as well.

Oto—the old Oto, the one with all the bases, all the jail cells, all the… The _wrong_ in it—was all she really did know as a home. She wouldn't say she wasn't thankful for the experience; it shaped her up to be the hard-headed young woman she was now.

But… A village. An actual village with a system, with villagers walking to and fro down the streets… No shady business… It was so surreal.

A knock on her door brought her out of her reverie.

"What," she called out, crossing her arms in front of her chest and turning around to watch Sasuke's brats walk in.

She raised an eyebrow at them.

"Karin-san," Ryuu began. Karin knew, from Sasuke's talks, that Ryuu was the sensible one out of the three. Yukio was too shy and Eiko… Oh. Karin smirked. She was going to drive Sasuke _crazy_.

"What brings you kiddies here," she drawled, walking around her desk to lean against it.

"Sasuke-sensei sent us for you," he went on, blinking his blue eyes. Kid was going to be a heartbreaker when he got older, she decided.

Karin sighed, fixing her glasses as she said, "Do you know what for?"

All three shook their heads.

"Well shit," she said, standing up straight, flipping some of her red hair over her shoulder. "Fine—you guys can head off now."

Nodding, they disappeared out the door. Karin pursed her lips, looking around her office one last time before heading out.

* * *

He hadn't changed much.

His jawline was more pronounce and sharp, telltale of stubbles here and there. His hair was a bit longer, shaggier and messier—so like him, he never really liked to get his hair cut and only seemed to do it when it grew passed the base of his neck. He was taller, thinner, more built. Any traces of the boy that left the village were long gone, replaced by the young man that grew up too fast.

It wasn't the first time she'd seen him in the span of the seven years that have gone by. She'd manage to see him, at least for a few minutes, every now and then when he'd travel to Konoha for some diplomatic thing; or when Naruto would come to Oto, as well. But it was the first time in months—if not a year or more—that she sat in front of him and just observed.

Sakura watched him with careful eyes.

The way he was so comfortable working with just an eye, the way he moved… Sasuke had changed a lot. He'd grown older.

It made her smile, fondly.

He was in the balcony, sending a hawk to inform Naruto of her safe arrival. Sakura took this time to observe the place where he, no doubt, spent most of his time.

It was neat, to say the least.

Sasuke had always looked like the kind of person to be neat—the bookshelf looked gorgeous and tantalizing, on the far wall, every shelf filled with a book from one end to the other. There was another bookshelf next to it, this one built specifically for scrolls. On the wall across from it hung a map of the allied countries as well as the villages in between; there were tacks stuck to some villages—red, blue and clear, each having a different meaning that perhaps had to do with the teams he's sent out on missions.

The desk that sat in front of her was beautiful. As large as the one that Naruto had—if not neater. He had a stack of documents and some scroll at the top as well as a homemade pen-holder that, by the texture, looked as some of the younger kids in the academy made for him. This made her smile more.

She closed her eyes, leaning against her seat, crossing a leg over the other and taking a deep breath. Next to her sat Minori, as quiet as a mouse and as unmoving as an observing cat. That was her boy, she grinned, turning to spare him a glance; observing his surroundings with big dark eyes, lips in a slight frown and brow furrowed.

Minori was such an adorable kid. He was going to be a looker when he grew older, too, she knew. The ones with the dark hair, dark eyes and pale complexions were always the big lookers. Sakura would know.

The door was opened and closed.

"What do you want me for, stupid?"

Sakura turned in her seat to watch Karin stand a few feet away from her, hands on her hips.

She looked… tired. Tired, malnourished and at least four weeks pregnant.

"You bitch," she hissed, standing up from her seat and walking towards her. She placed her hands on her shoulders, keeping her at arm's length as she continued to study her. "You _bitch_."

"Shut up," Karin muttered, looking away with a light pout.

"You shut up."

"Shut _up_."

"Karin."

"Sakura."

"Lovely," came Sasuke's low drawl. He walked in from the balcony, hair messier due to the breeze and his single eye set on the display before him.

Sakura watched as his eye turned towards Karin, observing all the symptoms she'd already observed for herself. Silly, she thought, that she would be worried about Sasuke and his nourishment and his obsession with moving around and never really paying attention to himself. Turned out it was Karin she should have been worried about.

"So what," Karin drawled, grabbing Sakura's hand and walking her closer to Sasuke's desk. "Is it meeting time? This'll be so _great_."

Sakura turned towards Minori who kept looking from Sasuke to Karin and back. She smiled, softly. "Minori, why don't you go look around the village? I'm sure Sasuke's students are around."

Minori stood up; placing the strap of his pack onto Sakura's outstretched hand and giving Sasuke and Karin a last once-over before politely excusing himself out of the room. Sakura turned towards the two left in the room, setting Minori's pack next to hers.

"Cute kid."

"Isn't he," she sighed. "He's such a little sweetie. I'm gonna man him up."

Karin smirked, giving a satisfied nod.

Sasuke sat across of them, elbows resting on the arms of his chair, fingers interlaced in front of him. He watched their interaction with silent amusement before he cleared his throat, allowing their meeting to begin before it got too late.

* * *

He'd heard about Otogakure being all nice and new.

It hadn't been an actual village, despite being older than the seven years it's taken to construct it. He would hear his parents talk about it; how it used to be a whole load of jails, keeping kidnapped people, some bribed with ideas or goals used against them. He heard it was about experimenting on them; trying out forbidden jutsu and other crazy things.

But as Minori walked down the streets, hands stuffed in the pockets of his black-nin pants, he couldn't help but wonder how that could have possibly turned to this.

He wasn't stupid—he knew seven years was a long time and enough to make miracles.

But it was kind of crazy to wrap his mind around.

The buildings looked new—all big or small, or squared or rounded or tubed. The streets were boisterous with villagers walking and talking amongst themselves, mothers calling after kids, children laughing. It was like walking down the streets back at home, in Konoha. He caught a few shinobi walking by, some with packs about ready to leave on missions. Some had their uniform ripped, scratches and bruises on their bodies, indicating their return home.

Minori observed with fascination.

This was a very nice—

"Hey, kid."

He paused, swallowing and turning to face his callers. They were standing at the entrance of an alleyway, hidden from the sun with shadows. But as he strained his eyes to get a better look at them, Minori realized it was Sasuke's students. The one that had called him out had been one of the boys.

He walked towards them, a bit awkward.

It wasn't that he was unable to make friends, so much that… He was just a tad bit nervous around other people his age. Especially since he had become a bit of a dead weight with his own team, making his teammates a bit wary of him. He hadn't really tried making new friends, after that.

Minori stood in front of them, trying to look as laidback as he didn't feel. "Hello."

The dark haired boy of the three gave him a once-over, arms crossed in front of his chest. Minori swallowed, thickly, hoping that they were unable to hear him.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Um," he shifted his weight from one leg to the other. "Minori."

"Che, I'm Ryuu," he jabbed a thumb towards the girl of the three, "this is Eiko and this over here," he dug his elbow into the ribs of the other boy, "is Yukio."

Minori scanned them—Eiko had her hands on her hips, weight supported by one of her legs, head tilted back in a cocky fashion and Yukio… Yukio stared at him from under his messy blond forelocks with soft eyes and a small smile. Minori eased up a bit, his shoulders losing the tension as he drooped them down and exhaled the air he didn't know he was holding.

"So you're from Konoha, huh?" Eiko asked, standing up straight and beginning to circle him. "Pretty scrawny shinobi they got over there."

"I—"

"Although," she went on, standing to his left, cocking a hip out and flipping some of her magenta hair over her shoulder. "Your sensei looks pretty legit—she managed to surprise Sasuke-sensei, anyway. Perhaps it's just you, then, huh?"

Minori opened and closed his mouth, a bit flabbergasted. He was saved from saying anything by Ryuu, who snaked an arm around his shoulder and began to lead him away.

"Aw, don't listen to her, man," he said, waving his free hand in the air, carelessly. "She has issues up here. I think you're pretty cool—hey, can you get this guy to talk? He never really says anything unless he gets mad. It's kind of freaky."

Minori turned towards Yukio who walked on his other side—huffing, haughtily, Eiko kept up on Ryuu's other side—and furrowed his brow. The blond boy walked with his head cast low, shoulders hunched and hands clenched at his side. He looked… Like a hermit; like he didn't know how or when to come out and be himself.

It was a feeling Minori knew about.

It wasn't even about being shy. It was about being intimidated and not knowing if your teammates were going to accept you.

"I think all groups need a quiet one," he said, giving Yukio a half grin as he looked up at him.

Eiko scoffed, on the other side of Ryuu.

Yukio blinked his eyes, as if noticing for the first time that his forelocks were overgrown and hiding his eyes. Pushing them away, he turned to them, brown eyes half-lidded. "Let's get some ramen?"

Ryuu and Eiko paused and Minori figured that Yukio speaking aloud really _was_ rare. He waited for the other two to compose themselves after their initial shock before, with Ryuu chuckling and Eiko snorting, they walked off.

* * *

"You must be tired."

He furrowed his brow—how stupid did that sound? Of course she was tired; traveling was always tiring, especially at the speed she must have gone to arrive sooner. Sasuke ran a hand through his hair, making the over grown, rebellious strands messier over his head.

It was close to evening; the sun was setting and the sky was darkening. The breeze was picking up, cold and cool against his skin. Sasuke liked nights in Oto for this particular reason; the cool air after a day filled with the sun's warmness. The streets were slowly clearing up; shops and stands pulling their goods back inside and cleaning up for the following day. Villagers began to wander back home, last minute groceries for dinner in their hands.

Sasuke walked with Sakura by his side.

They walked with arm's length in between them, their strides slow paced, their posture natural. This wasn't their first dramatic meeting after years upon years of not seeing each other, but circumstances have left them at an awkward stage. There was no longer any resent, any sort of sadness or anger from situations in the past; but he left Team Seven, again, when their wounds were halfway healed.

Who knew where exactly they stood?

It was easier with Naruto.

It was always easier with Naruto.

But Sakura…

"A bit," she said, interlacing her hands behind her back in a pose that Sasuke was very familiar with. "I would love to wander around the village…"

He scoffed, shaking his head. "You have time for that, later."

"I suppose I do," she replied, smiling and fixing the straps of both her and Minori's packs. "I never realized I've only come here for quick trips… There's so much I still haven't seen!"

Sasuke spared her a glance, lightly pulling at one of the straps of the two packs and taking it from her hold. He could be a lot of things, he knew, but he had been raised to be a gentleman. And through the cloud of anger and deceit and loneliness, that element was still there.

She gave him a small smile, nodding her head in gratitude before continuing to survey the streets.

"You've done a wonderful job, Sasuke," she said, softly.

Sasuke paused, for a nanosecond, blinking his eye and observing the familiar road—the houses with lights illuminating through the window, the closed shops, the villagers walking by, waving or nodding at him in respect. This was something he was already used to—the streets, the villagers, the homes, and the atmosphere. It probably looked ten times more different to Sakura.

What was routine to him was all new for her.

He swallowed. "Aa."

They walked in silence, after that, with Sasuke leading her to her new home—one that he made sure was comfortable and amplified—and Sakura observing everything with excited green eyes. It was… Sasuke was learning to not think or live in the past, but it felt like being twelve again. Their positions were exactly the same, even if the silence was mutual rather than tense and forced.

He turned into a building, walking up the stairwell towards the third floor.

"You didn't have to bring me all the way over here," Sakura said, always the one to break the silence.

Sasuke turned to look at her from over his shoulder, rolling his eye as he led them both down a balcony-hall. He watched Sakura turn to face the view, could imagine the look in her eyes of pure fascination. He scoffed, softly; Sakura would never change.

He opened the door, stepping aside to let her in.

But she paused, taking the pack from him and taking a couple of steps back to look up at him.

Her eyes were still as green as he remembered; green and silver and yellow and lashes a dark red. Sasuke looked away, towards the view of the village, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Thank you," she said, smiling.

Sasuke nodded. "Tomorrow, then."

"Yes," she said, turning to walk inside, "tomorrow."

Sasuke made to turn and leave before she stopped him with, "Oh, and if you catch Minori, can you send him over here?"

He raised an arm in acknowledgement before walking away.

* * *

It was passed midnight, Karin knew.

Sometimes, though, she couldn't really sleep. She didn't know why—didn't even think she could think of an excuse—but it just happened. She'd lay awake in bed, tossing and turning or staring at the ceiling, watching the shadows shape shift or even listening to the ringing in her ears.

It was one of those nights.

Karin sat up from bed, sighing and running her fingers down the length of her red hair. She snatched her glasses, sliding them on as she left her room and headed towards the kitchen. They say milk makes you go to sleep; a rumor anyway, she should probably ask Sakura, later.

She flicked the light switch on, fixing the strap of her tanktop before pausing with a loud gasp, heart jumping up to her throat and brain rattling in her skull. Her eyes were wide, glasses slipping down her nose and shorter strands of her hair tangling with her lashes.

She placed a hand over her chest, as if attempting to grab her beating-heart and calm it down.

"You—"

He looked up from his position, leaning against her counters and sipping on a glass of water. His eyes were as violet and as clear as ever, mischief dancing around the edges and shoving any desire for bloodshed back until it was needed.

"How's it goin', toots."

Karin stared at him in awe for another second before she glared, walking straight towards him and slapping his arm. "You can't just barge in here—"

"I didn't." He smirked at her, all sharp teeth and bad intentions. But that was Sui—that was the basic definition of Hōzuki Suigetsu. "I leaked in."

She followed his finger as he pointed towards her sink, the faucet dripping a drop of water every five seconds. Karin glared at him, crossing her arms in front of her chest in an almost defensive manner, taking a couple of steps back to study him.

He was still the same.

Messy silver-white hair, pale skin, violet eyes and a bad attitude. He carried his sword, still strapped across his torso and hanging behind him.

Suigetsu.

She clenched her jaw and refused to accept her fast-beating heart, refused to acknowledge the tingling sensation.

"What are you doing here?" she bit out in question, swallowing thickly. "Sasuke will kill you if he finds out."

"Ah, he won't," he drawled, waving a hand in the air. "He's prob'ly asleep, 'nyway. 'n who's gonna tell him? You?"

Karin opened her mouth to retort but snapped it shut a second later. He was right, she hated to admit. She wouldn't tell Sasuke that Suigetsu was around—she barely managed to get him to believe she got pregnant by a rendezvous; a chance meeting with Suigetsu outside the village, during her travel to a civilian village.

"What are you doing here?" she repeated, avoiding his smug question.

Suigetsu shrugged a shoulder, leaning away from the counter and placing the empty glass on the surface. "I was nearby. Thought I'd pay a visit."

She shook her head, turning away from him and walking out the kitchen. It took him a minute, but he followed her, his steps light and stealthy; the life as a rogue—as the soon to be leader of the new Seven Swordsmen—had made him grow in a completely different way than she had. He was more graceful, quick and precise. He didn't waste a step he didn't think he needed.

He snatched her wrist, making her pause in her stride, and yanked her back until her back collided with his chest. His arms wove around her, nose burying into the crook of her neck. Karin clenched her jaw, again, swallowing and closing her eyes to find the strength she knew she had—somewhere inside her, escaping her when she most needed it.

"Suigetsu," she growled. "We can't—"

"Shhh," he said, lifting his head up to place a chase kiss on her jawline. "Quiet, toots."

Karin glared, whirling around and staring at him with angry eyes. "I'm not your whore!"

She watched him roll his eyes, running a hand through his hair in exasperation. "Ain't no one sayin' you are. Jesus shit, would y'mind lowering your voice; you're being loud and stupid again."

Fuming, she stormed towards her room, knowing he'd follow. It was infuriating to think their relationship would develop to this—that _he_ would turn her into this. She was like a love-sick puppy trying to fight off the choking feeling in vain because it always returned and always swallowed her whole. Yet he looked… So indifferent. He could hug her, kiss her, fuck her as if he felt the same way, but what did Karin know?

Out there, where he was free to roam every country… He could have any girl.

And what would she be?

Just the mother of his unborn child.

She glared, snatching her glasses off her face and setting them down on her nightstand. She felt his presence and she outright ignored him.

"What's with you, huh?"

"Shut up."

"You're a lot bitchier than normal," he drawled, "Charmin', eh."

She shook her head, sitting on the edge of her bed. "I'm…"

"Yeh?"

No, no, she decided. She wouldn't tell him.

She wouldn't tell him at all.

"I'm just tired," she said, crawling into bed.

She heard him sigh, heard his boots fall to the ground as he kicked them off before crawling into bed with her. His arm lazily fell across her waist, his warmth heating her back, his breathing tickling the back of her neck. Karin closed her eyes and relished the feeling.

.

.

.


	6. sex

**dedication:** to booze and grilled cheese sandwiches.  
**summary:** Being a leader is akin to being a phoenix. You're always rising from the ashes.  
**notes:** I'm at Paige's house (Unicorn Paige) and we're having so much fun eating grilled cheese and getting drunk and throwing up at IHOP's and DBZ and feelings everywhere. Omg so, yeah! Happy Mother's Day to all the baby mamas and I love you all, enjoy!

* * *

**「****6****」**

Dawn was soon to come. Suigetsu stared outside the window, violet eyes squinted as he half paid attention to the way the sky was changing colors. He had never really been into detail; the more everything blended in together, the better. In the end, everything did anyway.

He pulled away from the window, ignoring the pink, the lavender and the blue.

His attention fell on the girl sleeping on the bed. She was half out of the white sheets, her hands curled under her chin and her hair spread behind her like splattered blood. Seeing her like this—seeing Karin so vulnerable, face serene and smooth… It drove him crazy.

Suigetsu took slow steps towards her, practically hovering off the ground. He stood at the edge of the bed, staring down at her and memorizing how she looked, right then. Staring at Karin was always his favorite part of his visits. No yelling, no bullshit, just quiet and the soft rise and fall of her chest. He licked his lower lip, counting the chapped lines as they smoothed out under his tongue, one of his hands reaching over to move strands of red hair out of her face.

He paused, brow furrowed.

Why would he do that? If she's still asleep, even with the strands sticking to her moist lips, then it didn't bother her, right?

He lowered his hand, sitting down on the edge and hiding his face in his hands.

Karin confused him, she did. She made him feel things he had never been comfortable with feeling and sometimes—god, sometimes, he would catch himself thinking about her while he was on his personal missions. It was stupid—so fucking stupid.

He sighed, lifting himself off the bed and staring at her for a bit longer.

For now, it had to be this way; confusion, weird feelings and unexpected visits. Seven years had passed and he was still unable to find the last of his swords. Until they were found and the Four Swordsmen of the Mist became Seven again, he couldn't stop moving.

He walked towards his boots, sliding them on.

Actually, he wasn't sure he could ever stop. Not even for her.

The sky was a clear blue when he left.

* * *

"Did you like your sightseeing, yesterday, shrimp?"

The apartment was… She didn't want to say luxurious, but it was by far better than her own place back in Konoha. She wasn't sure if she had Sasuke to thank for the spacious place, or one of his subordinates. Either way, Sakura was slowly falling in love with her new home.

Minori had arrived at least an hour after Sasuke had dropped her off at the complex, cheeks rosy and eyes filled with excitement he tried to control. It was an adorable sight to open the door to, in all honesty.

Sakura had been half asleep and couldn't really tease her precious student about the matter, though, and she felt like now was a good time to do it.

He looked up from his plate of rice balls, eyes wide and lashes tangled with his messy hair. "Fine… It's a big village. Kind of like home."

"Hm, yes," Sakura nodded, fastening binds around her right thigh. "I can see that—Konoha had a lot of involvement in Oto's upbringing from the ground. Did you have fun with Sasuke's students?"

"I—"

Sakura raised a knowing brow, strapping her weapons pouch over her bindings.

"Yes," he nodded. "They… were really nice."

"That's good." She smiled at him, eyes crinkled.

She went by, quietly, getting ready for her first day of teaching Oto medic-nins. Her mind wandered, thoughts about how difficult her new role was going to be. Not necessarily because of her inability to teach about medical ninjutsu, so much as because she knew the majority of Oto's shinobi populace were nasty little critters.

Sakura sighed.

Patience had never really been her thing.

"Am I supposed to go with you, sensei?"

Blinking, she turned towards Minori, watching as he finished the last of his quick breakfast, one hand finger combing his rebellious hair.

To her, Minori needed special teaching—alone with only him and her so her undivided attention was on him and no one else. He was her pupil—her prodigy—one day he would be in her shoes, sought out when most needed.

"No," she shook her head, smiling. "No, you can go and practice your taijutsu, shrimp. You and I will have your private lessons after dusk. Cool?"

He stared at her, lips tilted downwards in a neutral frown before the quirked up into a boyish grin. "Okay."

* * *

Karin looked like she was ready to eat her enemies' hearts when she stalked into his office.

This happened, a lot; at random spurs of the week, sometimes with a few going by without any over the top attitude. Sasuke wanted to blame it on her pregnancy; he knew that it brought raging mood swings that put the normal mood swings from someone like Karin to shame.

But… His eye lowered to her stomach—her womb—and stared at how flat it still was.

She wasn't even _showing_ yet, so that meant she couldn't possibly have mood swings yet, right?

Why was she even pregnant? Sasuke just… Why was she pregnant?

Sasuke sighed and quickly turned away from her, pretending to be oblivious to her as he stood outside his office's balcony, his hands gripping the metal bars, eye squinted as he stared at his village coming to life. A habit, was what this had become—just standing outside his office, watching the village.

"I hate you."

Ah, she wasn't discouraged.

Sasuke scoffed, lifting a hand up to run it through his messy hair.

"I _hate_ you."

He turned towards her, an eyebrow raised. What exactly was her issue—her eyes were pink-rimmed, complexion pale, hair tied back in a half-assed attempt to hide her lack of desire to brush or do anything else with it.

She looked absolutely _awful_. Not as awful as she had looked when Sasuke first found out she was pregnant, having walked into her house and hearing her vomit her intestines out before half-breaking the bathroom-door to see if she was _actually_ alright or not.

"You look like shit."

Sasuke smirked—not something he should have said, but who exactly cared? He was practically immune to Karin's tantrums.

From his peripheral vision, he saw her turn towards him, glasses slipping down her nose, the pink rimming her dark-red eyes all the more clear. She was glaring at him, lips twitching as she tried to figure out if she should bare her teeth at him in a sneer or just frown nastily.

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow.

"You've been crying."

"No."

She'd been crying.

He's known her for such a long time, now, that it was just—why would she even bother hiding it? Being able to tell Karin was crying was about as easy as being able to tell when Sakura was crying. Both his female teammates were so easy for him to read; it was almost insulting for them to even try to hide it.

"Why?"

"I haven't—I woke up feeling unwell."

He nodded.

Might as well go along with it, despite him knowing it was something entirely different. He didn't think he really wanted to know, either. Perhaps it had been about having an emotional moment of being separated from Suigetsu—never seeing him and having him not know of the child she carried in her womb.

That didn't sound like Karin at all, but what the hell did he know.

Sasuke sighed, tilting his head to the side and groaning as the kinks cracked.

"So are we ready or what?" she asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest in that defensive way of hers.

He pulled away from the balcony, walking back inside his office and towards his desk. There, he opened a drawer and took out a bottle of sake and chugged at it straight from the bottle without a single regret.

He knew he was going to need it, that day. And everyday that was to come.

They walked out of the office with Karin smirking smugly and Sasuke ignoring her existence.

* * *

Eiko liked the sun.

Something about the warm rays on her tanned skin felt soothing, to her. She wanted to compare it to a mother's embrace, but then again, her mother hadn't really embraced her much, in her upbringing. She just liked that the sun warmed her up, honestly.

She sat in the middle of the training ground, legs outstretched in front of her, hands up in the air with her palms facing upright as if trying to catch the rays. Her magenta hair was down, falling down to her mid-back and shorter strands shadowing her brown eyes.

It was faint, but she could hear other teams training further in.

It made her a bit jealous.

She didn't really understand why Sasuke was taking so long in teaching them anything; he was the goddamn Otokage, his team should be the strongest! But Eiko didn't feel like she'd progressed in anything since she graduated the Academy and it was beginning to irritate her.

He was even _late_.

Sasuke was a lot of things but late he wasn't. He just wasn't going to show, was he?

"Typical," she hissed, thinning her lips in her annoyance.

Ryuu, who had been doing pull-ups on a tree branch, turned towards her, dark hair damp and sticking to his forehead. "What?"

Eiko stood from her seat, rolling her head and hissing. "It's so typical of him to forget us."

"Aw, he didn't forget us," Ryuu said, grunting. "I thought it was pretty obvious that with the pretty lady here, he was going to get busy again."

She sneered at him, turning to watch Yukio practice on a dummy not so far away. Her teammates had settled for the short straws long before her, settling into a training session of their own and simply letting go of the fact that their sensei didn't show up.

Eiko sighed, drooping her shoulders and bending her knees into a battle stance, set on beginning her own training but there was a rustle in the bushes and she stopped her movements, tilting her head back and grabbing a kunai from her weapons pouch.

Around her, Ryuu paused from his pull-ups and Yukio straightened from his attack on the dummy.

Eiko threw the kunai, causing their intruder to pop out with a yelp.

"Minori," Ryuu said, grinning and dropping down form the branch into a squat. "How's it going, huh?"

Minori blinked, lifting a shaky finger up to run it across the cut on his cheek, mouth opening and closing like a fish. "I—I… Sasuke-sama sent me here to let you know he won't be here any time soon."

"Oh," Eiko scoffed, cocking a hip out and placing a hand over it. "Thanks, we didn't notice, pipsqueak."

His eyes turned towards her, locking with her own. His expression was blank, a quick flash of annoyance lighting them up gray before it was gone. This sparked an interest in Eiko—if he had the guts to get annoyed, then he was able to fight back, right?

She walked towards him until they were face to face—their noses almost touching whether because he was short or she was tall, she didn't know. "What is it, kid? You wanna fight?"

"Leave him alone, Eiko," Ryuu called out, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Let him fight his own battles, yeah?" she called out, her eyes never breaking from his.

Minori looked half a notch from mortified, thin lips pressed together and brow furrowed. If he had come with the pink-haired lady, then that would mean he was a medic too, right? Eiko wasn't stupid, the things that happened around the village were easy to understand; Sasuke needed more medic-nins and since Karin wasn't a medic, he needed to find someone to train some for him.

It was as clear as day.

So if Minori was a medic… She smirked.

"Or do you not know how to fight, huh?"

There it was.

The spark from before—his annoyance—was back and it didn't seem like it was going to go anywhere, this time. Eiko almost wanted to purr with excitement.

"Eiko," Ryuu warned.

She ignored it, taking a couple of steps back and going down into a battle stance. Originally, she was going to warm up and then rile on of her two teammates up to get a spar going but this… This seemed way more fun. New meat, new punches to dodge, new approach.

"C'mon, Ryuu," she said. "Keep watch—first to be unable to attack wins, cool?"

Ryuu sighed, "Fine."

Eiko could already feel the adrenaline rushing up and down her system, making her toes curl in her nin-sandals and causing her fists to quiver with excitement. She grinned, lopsidedly, at Minori before jumping into the air, doing a sloppy back flip and throwing a set of shurikens towards him.

He evaded them.

Good, so he wasn't a helpless medic after all.

Eiko'd heard a lot about medics from her father; they were helpless, poor excuse of shinobi that only get in the way in the battlefield because they always require protection. Which was why she couldn't possibly understand why her sensei had gone out his way to seek help from another village, making them come off as weak and dependent.

But apparently Minori had reflexes and smarts.

He caught one of the shurikens, throwing it back at her before sprinting towards her.

That was a distraction, she knew, ricocheting off of the surface of one of the trees, ignoring the shuriken as it scratched her arm and causing the bindings going up her arm to rip. She met him halfway and so began a battle of taijutsu. He was fast—faster than she thought he'd be—and his punches were a bit stronger than his lanky body would give off.

He punched her jaw with a nasty right hook and, in return, Eiko landed an uppercut that sent him flying a few feet away from her. She grinned, turning to spare Ryuu and Yukio a glance before sprinting towards him and body slamming herself on top of him.

"Guess who wins," she whispered into his ear just as Ryuu called the quick spar off.

* * *

Sakura was already in the vast classroom when she and Sasuke arrived. She was bringing in textbooks—five or six, stacked up and looking rather heavy—from the classroom-closet, placing them on her desk before walking back towards the closet.

Karin crossed her arms in front of her chest, walking over and inspecting the textbook with an eyebrow raised. A second later, Sasuke joined her, picking one up and thumbing through the pages.

"I was skimming it earlier," Sakura said, placing another stack on the desk. "It has a brief section on medical ninjutsu and a good diagram of the human body that I can use to have them get a visual. We'll start slow, yeah?"

Karin raised her eyebrows, nodding and stepping away from the desk. "Do you have a schedule or…?"

Sakura paused at the door, leaning against the frame and staring skyward, lower lip caught in between her teeth. "No, not really. I mean… There's not much I can do in _here_ other than giving a brief introduction and have them listen to a lecture on the body, maybe even quiz them tomorrow, y'know? But I need to get out _there_," she waved her arm towards the windows, "and show them the different poisons, herbs and medicine.

"Not to mention that I need them to practice with their chakra, have them be able to coat their hands with it so they can practice healing a bird or a fish or any injured animal."

Karin raised her eyebrows further up, whistling and shaking her head. "That's a lot of work… Maybe we should have asked for Shizune as well?"

"Oh, no," Sakura shook her head, half-smiling. "I left her in charge of my hospital."

"Then you'll be alright?" Sasuke asked, his eye on her. "If anything, you can teach them just basic healing ninjutsu and only leave the more advanced stuff for the ones who are more advanced themselves. You still, after all, have to take care of your apprentice."

Sakura remained quiet after that, brow furrowed as if lost in thought.

Karin sat on top of one of the desks, deciding that, if they go with Sasuke's approach, she could have the more advanced shinobi—whomever they wound up being—teach what they learned to the ones that would, no doubt, be sent towards the hospital upon being well taught, well trained and released by Sakura.

That way, Sakura wouldn't have to have too much on her plate and be able to handle it all in the amount of time Naruto had given her for her mission. Or, if anything, the schedule and the process would form itself as the days went by. All that Karin hoped was that the cretins would be easy and willing.

The door was opened and all three turned to watch shinobi of all age and ranks walk in.

"Well," she drawled, taking a few steps back and away from the desk. "Good luck."

* * *

Sakura leaned against the edge of the desk, arms crossed in front of her chest and legs crossed at the ankles. She scanned the mass, watching as they murmured amongst themselves or spared her wary glances when they thought she wasn't focusing in their direction.

Otogakure shinobi wore violet hitai-ate with the music note carved in the metal plate. Violet represented the future, Sakura knew, and admired that it was chosen for the newest village of the Alliance. Other than that, they didn't look much different than any other shinobi—flak jacket and dark nin-pants and shirt with the customary nin-sandals. If anything, the look of complete mistrust on their faces was what made Sakura feel edgy.

But she was stubborn and she was not going to back down. This was her mission and she would be damned if she allowed them to manipulate her with their sad, angsty back-story of being prisoners and experiments. They had to look to the future and become better from their pasts and she was there to help and she would force their growth, if she had to.

"Hello," she said, voice steady and strong. "My name is Haruno Sakura, most may know me as the head medic in Konoha. With that said, I'm sure you know why you're here and why I'm here so let's cut to the chase—I'm going to make medical ninjas out of you."

There was silence.

Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Is that, in any way, not to anyone's liking?"

A chorus of no echoed around and she nodded, moving away from the desk to stand right next to it, a hand on her hip and the other on top of one of the text books.

"Great. Then come up and pick up a text book. We're going to memorize every single thing about the human body."

* * *

He slid on the empty stool, nodding at the stand owner and watching as he began to make an order.

This ramen stand wasn't even supposed to exist if it weren't for his obnoxious best friend and his relentless poking and prodding until Sasuke was left with no choice but to contract someone to build the stand and find a good ramen maker. He hadn't thought it was going to become such a popular place, though.

"Oh," his female student drawled, "Look who decided to join us."

Sasuke rolled his eye. "I went to the training grounds and you weren't there. "

"We got hungry," she said, ever the voice of her team.

It was around two-fifteen in the afternoon. After the entire whole of the shinobi Karin had picked out for this new stage of his village, Sasuke had dismissed it, trusting Sakura to have it all under control. He did want to get some training done with his students now that they were—hopefully—through the whole teamwork thing. Maybe now they could go on an actual mission.

"Did you train while I was out?" he asked, nodding in gratitude as a bowl of ramen was set in front of him.

Ryuu, next to him, perked up at that, setting his chopsticks down and spinning around to face him. His blue eyes were wide and clear with mischief as he said, smirking, "Eiko had a spar with Minori—she didn't even bother going easy on him."

Sasuke turned his right eye to Eiko, an eyebrow raised.

Minori was Sakura's apprentice. He was to be a medic-nin that would take Sakura's place when she retired or even died. He was learning everything there was to know about the medical ninjutsu world, which meant he had little training in his taijutsu and reflex.

Sasuke sighed, turning back to his bowl of ramen and breaking his chopsticks and beginning to eat in silence.

"Sensei, who's the girl?" Ryuu asked, swinging in his stool, again, this time to face his bowl. "The lady, I mean… Minor's sensei?"

"Her name is Sakura."

On Ryuu's other side, Eiko looked up, swatting messy magenta forelocks out of her eyes. "Is that her name? Oh, right," she snickered, "It's what you said while standing there looking like a moron."

He sighed, grasping at his patience. Eiko drove him crazy within the first five minutes of being with his students.

"She's a medical kunoichi," he went on, ignoring her, "Do you guys know about medical shinobi?"

"We learned some things in the academy," Ryuu said, nodding.

"Yeah, like they're pathetic elements to a team that only get in the way. Casualties always happen because they always require protection," Eiko said, reciting the words she heard her father say around the house. "Why exactly are we training medic-nins, Sasuke-sensei? And why are we allowing our village to look so weak by seeking help from another?"

Sasuke cleaned his hands with a napkin, chewing on his noodles and swerving in his seat to face his students. Ryuu looked up at him with curiosity while, next to him, Eiko frowned with distaste. Next to her, Yukio stared back at him, waiting to hear what he had to say.

He disbelieved the academy would say such negative things about medic-nins and everything Eiko had said, she'd heard from someone else. He wouldn't blame his student for holding such beliefs if she had gathered them from someone older and angrier—someone who held such influence over her.

His job, not only as Otokage but as her sensei as well, was to teach, show and explain that medic-nins were the complete opposite of what she was led to believe.

"We have medic-nins," he began. "Not very many, but enough to help Karin maintain the hospital. Medical ninjutsu—medical shinobi—are a very important part of the ninja system. They are the ones that save us from death as well as help us in our missions." Sasuke raised a hand, signaling the owner of the stand to bring him a glass of water. "Casualties happen because casualties always happen, it's no one's fault. Tsunade, Konoha's Godaime, was the world's best medic-nin; she saved my life, once, and she was Sakura's mentor. My sensei had a medic-nin in his team and she performed an eye transplant on his damaged eye while they were on a mission—"

"Wow," Ryuu gasped, fascinated.

"What I mean to say," he went on after taking a sip of his water. "Is that medical ninjutsu heals and kills. Medic-nins are not just around to heal, they can kill as well; if they are to always be protected in a team, during a mission, it's because if their medic is killed, then they are as good as dead because no one will be around to heal them. Sakura, ever since Tsunade's passing during the Fourth Shinobi War, has taken the title of best medic in the world and she not only heals… She can destroy villages with a stomp of her foot or a punch to the ground, has quick reflexes and can inject poison in your body without you even realizing it. _That _is the power of a medic-nin."

"How do you know all that, sensei," Yukio asked, softly.

Sasuke sighed, playing with his ramen as he said, "Sakura was my teammate."

"_Was_?" Ryuu asked, shifting in his seat as his interest continued to grow. "You talk about her as if she's dead, sensei."

Of course they would pick up on his tense. Sasuke pushed his bowl away from him, turning to spare them a glance before exhaling another short, silent sigh. He didn't really want to get into the matter; it wasn't that talking about defecting from Konoha and the journey that followed after that bothered him. It was just a long story that he didn't want to get into.

He shifted, taking out his wallet to pay for their meal.

"Is," he said, as they all stood up. "She is my teammate."

* * *

Sakura dropped onto the clearing in a graceful squat, short hair fanning around her and her haori nipping at the back of her legs. Minori was at the middle of the clearing, bent down as he did a series of push-ups. She remained in her position for a while, watching him lift and drop himself, sweat dribbling down the slope of his nose, hair sticking to his forehead and thin lips pressed into a thin line.

The sun was setting, the breeze picking up on speed and coolness. Sakura groaned as she rolled her head around, rubbing at her tense shoulders as she walked towards him.

"Hey, shrimp," she greeted, smiling.

Minori dropped from his push-up, rolling around to face her with pink staining his cheeks. "Sakura-sensei…!"

"Scared ya, didn't I," she laughed, standing in front of him, hands on her hips. "You should work on that, shrimp. Shinobi must always have their guard up."

He nodded, looking downwards with embarrassment.

Sakura knelt, brow furrowed as she reached for his chin and tilting it so she could get a good glimpse of his face. There was a bit of a bruise and swell on his lower left eye, as if he'd been attacked. She certainly didn't remember seeing it earlier that morning… This must have been while she was teaching the medic-nins…

"Where'd—"

"I was training," he said, moving away from her touch. "Sparing."

She perked up at this. "Oh? Did you win?"

"No."

"Well, that's alright," she said, pulling him closer so she could get to healing his injury. "Not everything is about winning, shrimp. It's good that you're getting some practice in there, while I'm out. Was it with Sasuke's students?"

"Yes."

"Oh, how great," she grinned, coating her hand green with her chakra as she began to get rid of the swell and bruise.

"Sensei, I got beat in five minutes."

"That's okay—"

"No, it's not!"

Sakura sighed, watching as he stood up and paced around the clearing. Minori was a quiet, patient boy and it almost hurt to see him so angry with himself. Her brow furrowed as she stood from the ground, stripping out of her haori after taking out her gloves from one of its pockets.

"Okay," she said, sliding them onto her hands. "How about we skip your medical training for tonight. I was gonna have you heal a squirrel or something but fine—we're going to spar until your little lungs give out."

Minori turned towards her, his dark eyes wide.

"C'mon," she said, waving him over. "Get in your stance."

She followed his movements as he neared her, bending her knees down just as he did.

"Ready?"

"Sen—"

"Go!"

.

.

.


	7. septem

**dedication:** to you guys for loving these adorable OC's of mine and shipping Minori/Eiko. also to Paige and Rhea, the ringleaders to Minori/Eiko.  
**summary:** Being a leader is akin to being a phoenix. You're always rising from the ashes.  
**notes:** I would suggest you read carefully when it comes to Sasuke and Sakura being in the same scenes, together? Whatever happens in the future chapters would be less shocking that way. Toodleloo, happy Thursday!

* * *

**「****7****」**

Minori was alone when he woke up, drenched in sweat and still aching in every limb of his body. He groaned, attempting to shift and sit up on his small bed but only stopped, hissing in pain, when the aching became a bit more acute, rattling his brain inside his skull.

He sucked in air, clenching his eyes shut and sitting up in one swift movement and almost twitching as he heard the knobs of his spine crack after an entire night of laying on it.

He stood up on wobbly legs, running a hand through his damp hair and looking around his room.

It still looked as if no one lived in it, his pack carefully set by the door with only the buckle undone when he blindly reached in for a change of clothes. Minori took shaky steps—slowly at first, ignoring his knees as they cracked and picking up his speed as he felt his energy slowly begin to return.

Training last night had been nothing short of brutal.

Sakura had attacked him as if he was an enemy, throwing punches and swinging kicks and tossing weapons without a single chance to gather his thoughts and his strength. It only forced him to act up, sloppily dodging and just as sloppily aiming his own attacks until he refined his speed and gathered his thoughts and was off fighting.

He just didn't think his sensei's attacks would hurt so much.

Upon arriving home after hours of never-ending sparring, Minori dropped onto his bed and fell into a deep slumber.

Now, though, he was alone, which meant it was past eight in the morning and his sensei had left to teach her class. He pressed a hand on his ribs, walking into the kitchen with the full intention to drink two full glasses of water but stopped short by the refrigerator, the electric-blue sticky not grabbing his attention.

_Shrimp,_

_Your training for today is to heal yourself. Remember all the pointers I've given you so you don't empty out your chakra reserves. I don't want to walk in on you half dead!_

_Good luck,  
Sakura_

He sighed, leaning against the refrigerator and sticking the note on its surface, again. His ribs were bruised, he might have a sprained _something_ and by the stinging on his face and the rest of his body, he might have some nasty cuts here and there.

Minori licked his lips, wincing as his tongue brushed a tender spot and decided to get started. But first, he thought, he was going to get some water.

* * *

Oto-nins were snarky little cretins, of this Sakura had been sure about since before she took up the mission to teach them medical ninjutsu. They were downright mean and resentful of half a life living as an experiment, or even a prisoner.

And someone like Sakura could understand that.

She prided herself in being sympathetic and understanding, honestly. She had teammates without family, teammates that lost family, _she_ had lost people that meant a lot to her. Sakura could be sympathetic and understanding.

But she was not one to let anyone make a fool out of her.

She tilted her head to the side. Halfway through her very brief recap of the lesson from the day before, setting her book down on her desk and crossing her arms in front of her chest. She took slow steps towards the desks, her green eyes scanning the three different floors.

Sakura could already feel her temper skyrocketing, bubbling and dispersing through her system.

"Excuse me?" she asked through her teeth, her eyes zeroing in on the cocky shinobi in the middle row.

He stared right back at her and Sakura felt like she was over counting up to ten to keep herself in line. He raised an eyebrow, never lifting his chin off of his palm as he repeated, "I said 'med-nins are a waste of space and we don't need any'. Did you hear me now, _sensei_?"

Sakura pressed her lips together, smiling in a menacing way as she gave a curt nod. She chuckled a bit, looking down at the table below her, at the quick notes the shinobi had scribbled in a scratchy handwriting.

"Oh," she breathed out. "Oh, you think med-nins are a waste of space. Okay, that's fine—yeah, that's fine." She looked up, eyes darkening and lips twisting into a sneer as she punched the desk in front of her with a chakra-coated fist.

There was a loud noise, like an explosion, and dust and splinters clouding the air and making it hard to see. She heard some of the other shinobi in the room cough or grunt or exclaim in shock at her action and, maybe, destroying an entire desk wasn't the best of ideas but Sakura didn't care.

Her eyes settled on the snobby shinobi as he came into view, again, his eyes wide and his upper body leaning away as if trying to create more distance between them.

"You want to come down and say that again? I didn't quite catch it," she growled, looking down and closing her eyes, willing her composure to return. "Either you get out right now, while my eyes are shut, or you sit there and keep quiet, learn every single thing I have to teach you and come up on top—nothing short. Your choice."

She opened her eyes and watched as he sat there, still, his facial expression losing all its shock.

"Fine," she said, sweetly. "I'll take that as a yes."

He didn't say anything. Not until she turned around, smiling and with the full intentions to continue her lecture, when she heard him say, "It'll be easy, anyway."

Sakura's smile broadened; the next few months looked to bring a bit more fun than she had expected.

* * *

Sasuke sat in his office, leaning back in his seat and with his legs propped on the edge of his desk. One of his many cats was resting on his lap, one of his hands absentmindedly petting him as he read through a mission report.

On top of his desk sat two stack of mission scrolls; one stack for mission reports that he'd let pile up from putting them off for so long, and the other missions he needed to send his shinobi off on. The latter had gotten smaller as the morning went by, now close to one in the afternoon and he was down to at least five scrolls and he was positive three of them were ANBU leveled.

Otogakure didn't have all that much ANBU, yet, but the selected few that it had were among the most elite out there; ruthless, precise, stealthy and ready to get the job done.

There was a knock on his door. Sasuke grunted in approval of entry, skimming the last of the report before rolling the scroll up and setting it aside. He looked up in time to watch Karin walk inside, looking just a tad bit better than the day before.

He raised an eyebrow at her for a second before reaching for another mission report, shifting around just as his cat dropped from his lap to hide somewhere.

"What," he drawled, opening the scroll.

Karin dropped onto one of the two chairs in front of him, slouching and extending her legs as she threw her head back and sighed.

"Sakura broke a desk."

It took him a while to break his attention away from what he was reading, but when it clicked in his head, Sasuke looked up, his eyebrows scrunched in minor confusion.

"She broke a desk," Karin elaborated, waving a hand in the air. "One of the obnoxious assholes said something that pissed her off and she broke a desk."

"What, did she like punch it?"

Karin shrugged a shoulder, lifting her glasses off her face and inspecting the lenses.

Sasuke stared at the neat handwriting in the mission report in front of him, not really reading anything. His mind was wandering around, thinking about who the shinobi that angered Sakura—on the second day, to boot—could have been. He didn't know all his shinobi by name, but Sasuke had a good visual memory and could remember them by their faces.

A part of him actually felt a bit angry at the fact.

Sakura was an old teammate, perhaps she could still be considered his teammate because Team Seven was never disbanded, even if the team leader died in action. Things happened between all of them—a lifetime of a history went down in just three years with only three years to mend, afterwards, before he had to leave the village again at nineteen.

But she was his teammate.

She was a visitor to his village.

She was, in a way, his responsibility. He was her host and it angered him to know that she was being treated with such a lack of respect.

Sasuke pressed his lips together, willing his molars not to grind against each other the way they did when he was frustrated. He parted his lips, exhaling and shifting in his seat to sit correctly, rolling it around to face forwards. He dropped the unread scroll back on the pile, fingering the mission scrolls and grabbing one, opening to skim the request before closing it and setting it apart in one of his drawers.

"I'll take care of it," he said, standing up, shrugging his haori off and draping it on the back of his chair. He walked around his desk, pointing at the mission scrolls and giving Karin an expectant look, chuckling as she hissed a string of curses his way as he left the office.

* * *

"Okay, try it again!"

Eiko bent her knees, her hands doing the right hand signs just as Ryuu and Yukio began to throw stones up in the air. She gulped for air, puffing her chest out as she leaned her torso back, for momentum.

"_Suiton_!"

She gasped, exhaled, and began to shoot out water bullets out of her mouth, moving her body to aim at the stones in the air. Her dark eyes narrowed as her attack stopped, forelocks tangling with her lashes as she bent forwards with her hands on her knees. Eiko then stood back to her full height, throwing her head back to move her hair out of the way and lifting a hand to her face, wiping the thin trickle of water from the corner of her mouth.

"How'd—"

A stone laid in the middle of the ground, almost taunting her. Her brown eyes narrowed further, jaw clenching in complete annoyance with herself.

Yukio and Ryuu zeroed in on her, not at all looking bothered by the complete failure. She scoffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she looked away.

Their training sessions with Sasuke had been moved to the afternoons, now, and while they waited for the time, they would goof off, setting challenges up for each other. Today, Eiko was supposed to shoot at all the stones thrown in the air by Ryuu and Yukio, with her water gunshot.

She kept missing at least one, every time.

"Let's—"

"Aw, do we really have to, Eiko," Ryuu asked, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his nin-pants. "We've been going at it all morning, how do you even still have any chakra left in you?"

She grit her teeth, exhaling through her nose and trying to keep herself from blowing up. It was okay, she tried to remind herself, this was why it was training. This was what training was for; to get better.

"Then," she hissed, "what do you suggest we do?"

Ryuu blinked his blue eyes, turning to face Yukio as if he'd have the answer to the question. They stood around, in a huddle, for a while in their attempts to find a source of entertainment until their sensei came for their actual training session.

Eiko hoped they could go on a mission soon—a _real_ mission outside the village. If they finally got their sensei's purpose of those obnoxiously dumb missions of gardening or finding his cats, then they could go on a mission, right?

She sighed, silently.

What did they say about wishful thinking, again?

"Hey, let's go look for Minori," Ryuu finally said, nodding and throwing an arm around Yukio's shoulder.

Pausing for a brief second, Eiko scoffed. "Why would we want to do that? He's probably doing his dumb medical training."

"Nah, his sensei's teaching our shinobi, remember?"

She chewed on the inside of her cheek, furrowing her brow and bringing up the rear of their group as they walked out of the training grounds. Shrugging, she picked up her pace to lead the way; she refused to believe she was anything but the ringleader of the three and as leader, she would take up the front. She whirled around to face them as she walked, smirking as she said, "He probably hasn't come out coz he's still sore that I beat him."

* * *

Sasuke walked down one the hall of Oto's academy, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his nin-pants. The hall was quiet, his steps on the concrete echoing loudly. He scowled at the door, stopping in front of it before reaching over to the knob, pulling it open and stepping inside.

Sakura sat on top of her desk, one leg crossed over the other as she read through a stack of papers. She looked up as the door closed behind him, smiling upon realizing it was him.

"Hey," she said, returning to her papers.

He nodded his head, not minding that she couldn't see it. He walked until he was behind her, peering over her shoulder at what she was doing. In her hands, scanning with her clinical eyes, were the quizzes of the human body taken by the soon-to-be Oto med-nins.

Sasuke skimmed some of the questions and answers, nodding approvingly and snorting in amusement.

"They're either really smart," Sakura drawled, handing him a few for him to look through, "Or I'm an amazing teacher."

He chewed on the inside of his cheek to keep himself from replying. Settling for skimming the answers on the papers in silence, Sasuke tried to figure out a way to say what he went there to say.

He had said he'd handle the situation, yes, and he had an idea of how to, yes… But he didn't think about his lack of ability to talk to his temperamental teammate. Sasuke lowered the papers, staring at the rows of desks, his eye zeroing in on the broken one in the first row.

That wasn't the right way of putting things, he supposed. Talking to Sakura had become easier than it was when they had still been twelve; it became easier than when they had been on opposite sides during the hardest time of his life and even now, after everything—every good and bad and rocky and smooth—that had happened between them, it was easy.

It was just... A matter of the fact that, after the abrupt end of things, he didn't think he knew where they stood.

Perhaps this, what he was going to do—his way of apologizing to her for his disrespectful shinobi—would be too much.

"So what brings you around here," she said, lowering the stack to make a few marks on the paper before switching to the next. "Class is over."

"I'm not here for the class," he said, taking her pen out of her hand and making a few marks of his own. "I'm here because I was informed that one of the potential healers of my village was a moron."

Sakura threw her head back and laughed.

"Oh, that!"

"Yes, indeed."

She tucked strands of her short pink hair behind her ear, shifting around so that she was in a better position for them to have a conversation. Resting her papers on her lap, she said, "It was nothing, really. I don't blame the idiot for his thoughts."

"They are ridiculous thoughts," he said, resting his hands on the surface of the desk and allowing them to support his weight.

"You don't even know what he said," she said, grinning.

"So tell me."

Sighing, she dropped her work altogether, lifting her head up to stare out the window. It was no later than two in the afternoon and the sun was still reigning at its highest point, lighting and heating up the village with much vigor. The academy, much like in Konoha, was located quite close to the entrance of the village and, within this classroom, the sight of the village gates were in clear view.

They towered up into the sky as high as the trees from the forest on the other side, all smooth stone, thick wood and metal. It was a sight to see and, apparently, what caught Sakura's attention.

"It was… Nothing, really," she said shrugging. "It didn't bother me."

Sasuke stared at her for a second before turning to look at the mess of broken wood straight across from them. "If you broke a desk, it sure as hell bothered you."

"No," she sang. "I was proving my point. No little shinobi—whatever his rank—is going to make me lose my composure."

He stared at her until she locked her eyes with his and she snorted, shaking her head.

"Ugh, okay, fine. Little vermin got under my skin and I wanted to show him ten kinds of pain."

"You showed the desk pain, alright. What'd he say?"

She sighed, wringing her hands and picking her papers back up. She deepened her voice before saying, "'Medic-nins are a waste of space and we don't need any'." She snorted, shaking her head. "Like I said, I think I can understand why the shinobi around here are so iffy. So whatever."

Sasuke grunted, rolling the words in his mind.

"I mean," Sakura went on, "these people… Were victims, Sasuke. Prisoners and experiments toyed with by _Kabuto_. And what was he…?"

He narrowed his eye, turning to stare outside the window. "A medic-nin."

She hummed, snatching the pen back to continue her corrections. "So whatever, right?"

Sasuke grunted, again.

"Anyway! No use discussing something as unimportant as that." She laughed, more to herself than anything. "What're you up to?"

"I came…"

He furrowed his brow.

How exactly was he going to say this? It was easy to say in his head; no one was in there, no one could hear him but himself. But… To say it aloud? To Sakura? It was… Kind of mortifying. Sasuke had never been the apologetic kind—not the one to say it, anyway. Sasuke relied more on his actions than his vocabulary, after all.

"You came…?"

He sighed.

"Would you like to accompany me for lunch?"

Sakura snapped her head up, then, green eyes just a tiny bit wider than normal, lips parted in a silent gasp. She looked… As awestruck as the first time he uttered those words five years ago after the after effects of the war long won had finally ended.

He smirked at her, an eyebrow raised.

"I—Yes. Okay." She cleared her throat, nodding and looking back down at her paper and thoroughly making sure her forelocks hid her face from him. "Sure."

* * *

Minori opened the door, eyes droopy and an end to a strip of wraps in between his teeth. On the other side of the door were Ryuu, Yukio and Eiko all smirks and grins and scowls. Instantly, his nervous system decided to act up.

"'sup, Minori!" Ryuu greeted, blue eyes taking in just how disheveled he looked. "You... Uh… Busy…?"

Minori shook his head, moving aside and letting them all in, snatching the wraps out of his mouth just as soon as he closed the door. His hair was still damp from his quick shower, nin-pants unbuttoned and torso bare as he patched up what he deemed didn't need him to waste chakra.

Which he had a small amount of left in his reserves, so to speak.

"Wha'cha up to?"

"I… Training."

Eiko snorted, hands on her hips as she looked around the place. "Did you pack a wallop on yourself, champ?"

He turned towards her, his brow furrowing a bit and his cheeks burning. He stiffly led the three into the living room, sitting back down in the middle of the explosion of medical equipment on the ground. "Actually, I had taijutsu training with Sakura-sensei, last night. My training for today was to heal my wounds."

Her eyes were on him and he felt it; his nose crinkled, reaching over and getting a clean ball of cotton and drenching it in alcohol to rub on a shallow cut running down the length of his forearm. Twigs were merciless, two-faced enemies; especially when your sensei was a walking powerhouse that could break trees without even trying.

"Does healing not involve getting rid of your wounds with your chakra?" Yukio asked, tilting his head.

Minori puffed his cheeks up with air, letting it all go at once a second later.

"Well… Yeah. But the thing is, when it's something like this, it's only good to heal what really needs attention and just bandage up the little things so you don't run out of chakra for nothing." He looked down as he wrapped his forearm with wraps before adding, "I got all the nasty ones, 'cept for this crack I have on my ribs. I don't think I should be moving as much as I have…"

All three of them stared at him.

"Oh it's fine," he said, smiling crookedly. "If I start bleeding you can just go look for my sensei or something."

They blinked.

Minori cleared his throat, looking back down at scanning himself for anything else he needed to fix up. With fixing his torn bicep, his sprained wrist and a nasty cut on his thigh, he'd done his training and by just cleaning and bandaging up the little things, he had kept in mind the many pointers Sakura had given him. Which translated to him doing his training right.

"Dude, you have a fractured _rib_?" Ryuu asked, raiding the kitchen. "Have you even eaten—can you even eat? What?"

Eiko sighed, sitting on the couch Minori was leaning against, crossing a leg over the other. "You're like an ape out of its habitat."

"Hey, there's ramen."

"My statement has been solidified."

Ryuu walked out of the kitchen, rubbing a hand on his shirt and chewing on something; he pointed a thumb towards the kitchen, saying, "Hey you got leftover rice-balls… Can I eat some? Eiko had me throwing rocks at her all morning and it made me seriously hungry."

Minori nodded, waving a hand.

"Cool, you want any—any of you want any or can I just eat all of them?"

"I seriously wonder how Sasuke-sensei considers you the genius of the team," Eiko said, flipping magenta hair over her shoulder.

Shrugging, Ryuu turned around and walked back into the kitchen.

There was a moment of mutual silence in which Yukio looked around the place, Minori tried to clean up his mess and Eiko stared at the back of his head. It made an annoyingly hot blush dust his cheeks and made him self-conscious of his actions.

He turned, slightly, to look at her from over his shoulder.

Her eyes locked with his, no sign of being embarrassed at being caught at her open staring. "Tell me about this medical ninjutsu of yours."

Minori opened his mouth, closed it and blanched out. He cleared his throat, "Well…"

* * *

His eye followed the droplet of water as it fell down the length of the glass, starting from the rim down until it slid off the glass itself and onto the bar-table. He picked up his glass, bringing it to his lips and taking a sip of his whiskey.

Next to him, Sakura abandoned her sake glass and took an unladylike chug from the bottle.

Sasuke choked, a bit, closing his eyes and looking away. Some things about Sakura would not change, apparently.

"Sakura," he sighed, shaking his head and lips twitching at the corners.

She shrugged a shoulder, waving her arm in the air as if that would tell him everything wrong in the world and why she needed to take gulps of her sake because being drunk solved everything. But it was close to three o'clock and being drunk this early was quite ridiculous.

Sakura was smiling, fingertips drumming on the surface of the table. "Shishou used to chug like that."

There was a fragile silence in the air, after that, in which they drank their drinks and waited for their sushi to arrive. There were subjects that weren't touched upon without prodding. It didn't matter if Sasuke lived in one village and his teammates lived in another, not even in their brief visits to one village or the other brought up the topics, not even when Sasuke would arrive into Konoha and the first place he'd go to was the cemetery.

His family's resting place was completely destroyed when Pein attacked Konoha. It had been like exorcising demons and heartbreak all in one. A memorial had been built in the Uchiha name, in Konoha's cemetery and Sasuke would stand in front of it for a period of time before moving onto the next one, where he'd stare and find the name of the man that had understood him in ways he had never realized until it was too late.

Loss was something Sasuke had always been used to—

"Y'know," Sakura said, softly, the bottle of sake in between her hands. "Naruto goes there every morning. He thinks I don't know, but I do. He stands in front of that memorial and beats himself up every time."

"You don't go?"

She smiled, sharp and cracked. She turned to face him, her forelocks tangling with her lashes. "I was never the emotionally strong one out of the three, right?"

"I wouldn't say that," he said, bringing his glass to his lips.

"What would you say, then?"

Sasuke paused, trying to gather up his words. His brow furrowed, lower lip caught in between his teeth. He settled for a soft grunt and it sent Sakura into a snort and a soft giggle.

She smacked his arm, shaking her head as she said, "See, we all know it. It's fine, though, because I can still break you both with a punch."

He sighed, nodding in gratitude as the sushi was brought out to them. A series of plates with different dishes sat in between them, on the table, and Sasuke went straight for the tomato-stuffed onigiri.

"You're never going to change."

"Neither will you."

Sakura snorted, again, before they settled into a peaceful silence.

.

.

.


	8. octō

**dedication:** to the Naruto updates because shit is getting GOOD.  
**summary:** Being a leader is akin to being a phoenix. You're always rising from the ashes.  
**notes:** I want to tell you guys that there is a plot to this. It's just not coming until I get a few stuff down. Think of it as a Part I and Part II thing; plot goes apeshit in Part II. So yeah!

* * *

**「****8****」**

"How're those ribs?"

He squinted up at her, dark hair tousled and messy due to the breeze blowing by persistently. He was kneeling to the side of the training grounds, shoulders hunched as he hovered over a red bird with both its wings broken after escaping death at the hands of a fox. His hands glowed green with his chakra and his forehead glistened with sweat—he looked so adorable when he had his face scrunched with concentration.

"S'fine," he said, looking back down at the bird, lower lip sticking out in his version of a pout.

Sakura grinned, nodding her head and returning to her own training. While Minori worked on healing the bird's wings, Sakura was practicing her taijutsu, her stance and reflexes. She stood in front of a half-beaten dummy, knees bent and her arms outstretched—one to the front and one towards the back, fingers outstretched and thumbs bent inwardly in a style that reminded her of the youthful man that taught her all she knew.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath in and exhaled it through her barely parted lips. In an instant, she hit the dummy in all the right places; the deafening sound of wood cracking and chipping echoed through the training grounds. A flock of birds flew out of the sanctuary of one of the many trees, awakened and startled.

"Sensei?"

Sakura smirked at the dummy, raising her hands up to focus as she unwrapped the binds from around her hands just to rewrap them up, a bit tighter than the last time.

"Yeah?"

Minori looked up at her, strands of his hair falling over his eyes in an uncomfortable manner. "Will you ever teach me the Yin Seal?"

She paused, placing one of her hands on her hip, the other one running through her forelocks before tucking them behind her ear. It'd been such a long time since the Yin Seal became a part of her life that she didn't even remember it was there, sometimes.

Her Shishou taught the Yin seal to her during her training. Tsunade had said that, even if medic-nins were needed for healing, it was impossible to leave them vulnerable and it was good to learn to hold their own.

"You're my student," she had said, "a successor to one of the Sannin... And the disciple of the Fifth Hokage!"

After that day, Sakura had begun to store half of her chakra to a focal point on her forehead, going on missions, healing and living her daily life with just half of the amount of chakra she was able to mold.

Minori had great control over his chakra, as well, something that is crucial for medic-nins. And he was only twelve, to boot. Not to mention that, while their scheduling was awful and she was always called in for one thing or other, he'd learned a lot since she took him under her wing, six months ago. A very good thing, as well, his lack of needing to depend on someone.

If it kept up like that, she'd just leave him with his task written down, giving him all day to accomplish it, and come back to see his results and then train with him whenever she was free. It was a win-win situation.

"Maybe," she finally said, grinning at him. "I don't see why not."

His eyes brightened into a nice shade of gray, a boyish smile on his lips before he returned his concentration to the bird he was treating.

* * *

A week and a half later, Sasuke sat in his office, signing some documents that needed his approval. Trivial things that happened just about every day—routine. Sasuke disliked routine, but he didn't exactly have a choice, did he?

He sighed for what could possibly be the hundredth time that morning.

Outside, the sky was as blue as ever, flocks of birds flew by and the echoes of the shouts from the villagers were carried by the breeze through his opened balcony doors. It all made it harder for him to concentrate.

Sasuke sighed, once again, throwing his pen down and leaning back on his chair.

He rubbed at his temples, his eye closed. One of his cats—perhaps Scarecrow—jumped onto his lap, curling up and falling asleep. Sasuke decided that was a rather good idea and slowly allowed himself to drift off.

It wasn't until he was in the land of in between consciousness and sleep that he heard the landing of one of his hawks. He inhaled deeply, lazily opening his eye and watching as the bird, sitting at one of his chair's arms, picked at its feathers with a scroll tied around one of its talons.

He studied the hawk, remembering it as the one he'd sent towards a future client upon reading the scroll he was sent with a mission request. He untied the new scroll, unrolling it as the bird dismissed itself to the birdhouse where all the hawks lived.

Skimming the new scroll, he opened one of the drawers on his desk and took out the scroll he'd set there a week prior, opening it to read the request inside.

"Hotaru," he called out.

The door was opened and a woman peeked inside, "Yes, Sasuke-sama?"

"Get me my team."

"Right away, sir."

He rolled both scrolls up, setting them next to each other and waited. Finally, he thought. Finally there was the perfect mission—so much like his own very first one, years ago—for his Genin team. Bonus points that they were finally beginning to get along better, helping each other with their training.

Sasuke sighed. "Finally."

* * *

Eiko looked up from her position on the ground, lips parted as she tried to inhale as much air as she greedily could. Her hair fell over her face, scrapes and cuts and new bruises littering her body after an intense three-way spar with Yukio and Ryuu.

She made to stand up, wiping away blood from a cut on her cheek with the back of her hand.

A woman appeared; she instantly recognized her as Hotaru, Sasuke's assistant. Eiko raised an eyebrow at her, pushing her hair back and dusting herself as best she could.

"Hotaru-san," Ryuu greeted, grinning. "What're you doing out of the Tower?"

She stared at them, a quick smile on her lips before saying, "Sasuke-sama calls for you three. Better hurry."

They shared a look, eyebrows raised and curiosity poked at. They composed themselves, cracking the kinks out of their bodies, cracking their knuckles and fixing their attire before running off in a silent race.

The village was still booming with life at noon.

Progressive Street was packed with villagers doing their daily shopping and vendors hoping to make better sales than the day before. Eiko and her teammates zoomed passed them all, zig-zagging through the gaps and jumping up to the roofs when it got too crammed.

Ryuu threw his head back, laughing as he took the lead and Yukio and she were tied right at his tail. Eiko narrowed her eyes, jumping from one rooftop to the next and willing herself to pick up her speed.

"Can't beat me," he taunted, stretching his limbs out in mid air before bending his knees to land in a crouch. He was gone a second later.

"Oh, yes I can," she growled, dropping back down to the streets and sprinting the rest of the way there.

One day, in the future, she knew her competitiveness would be her downfall. But she refused to lose to anyone without at least putting up a fight. And that's exactly what she did, hopping and swinging up until she was close enough to Sasuke's office balcony, landing sloppily and staggering her way inside.

"Aw, c'mon, Eiko! That was totally cheating," Ryuu called out, landing on the balcony's barred railing. Yukio landed right next to him, sparing Ryuu a glance before taking off and making himself officially the second place winner.

Ryuu's jaw dropped to the floor.

"You guys suck!" He hopped off, stalking inside with the world's biggest pout. "D'you see that, sensei? No respect—no respect for fair game. It's so sad, I think I may just have a heart attack or something."

They lined up in front of their sensei, something that had become a habit, and gave their respectful bow not just for being their sensei but for being the Otokage, as well. They eyed him, sitting on his desk, staring at them with his blank dark eye.

Eiko crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Well?"

He picked up a scroll.

Her heart raced.

"We have a mission."

They all cheered, pumping their fists up, high-fiving and jumping in place. They composed themselves to listen to their sensei debrief them, tingles of excitement erupting through their systems.

"It's C-rank, both in my apology and trust that you will be able to work together after all the training." He sat back in his seat, twirling the scroll in his hand. "Your mission is to escort the bridge builder, Inari, back home to the Land of Waves."

"An escort mission? That's it?"

He raised an eyebrow at her and Eiko puffed her cheeks out, embarrassed at her outburst.

A mission was a mission; at least they'd be able to leave the village, right? And it was C-rank, to boot; genin were normally just sent on lousy D-ranks. She had nothing to complain about—complaining had just become something of a habit to do just to test her sensei's patience.

"We leave tomorrow," he went on, ignoring her complaint. "Meet at the village's entrance, packed and ready for travel. Dismissed."

* * *

That afternoon, Sasuke had his work cut out for him. When he was younger, the Kages never left their respective villages to visit one another or to go to a summit of sorts for pure political reasons. Leaving the village unattended and without the strongest shinobi was out of the question.

But times were different, now.

Peace was the very air they all breathed. After the Fourth Shinobi war, it was like a fresh start—a redo of sorts. It allowed kages to take a genin team of their own, allowed them to put their trusts on their most trusted shinobi to keep their village safe while they stepped out on missions and made life ten times easier.

So that afternoon, Sasuke walked down the streets of his village, nodding in greeting and acknowledgement at all his villagers as they bowed and greeted him with friendliness and politeness. He was on a hunt for his most trusted kunoichi, a vein of irritation throbbing on his brow at the inability to find her.

He'd travel around all the streets, his eye searching for an annoying red. But stupid Karin was nowhere to be found.

Sasuke sighed, running a hand through his messy dark hair, pulling back the shorter strands that rebelliously fell over his forehead, deflating a bit as they fell back into place, sticking to his forehead in an unpleasant way.

Perhaps she was with Sakura in her classroom?

He looked up, eyes squinted and face scrunched up as he checked the sun's position.

No, Sakura's class was over with. Not to mention that they weren't utilizing the room much, since she was beginning to teach them about poisons and herbs.

Maybe she was in her office.

Ignoring the fact that he didn't check the place out first before wandering the streets, Sasuke took off onto the rooftops, making his way towards the hospital where he moved his way to where he knew Karin's office was positioned, opening the window and swinging inside.

Karin sat on her chair, behind her desk, with Sakura pacing back and forth in front of her. Both of them paused their conversation, turning their attention to him.

"What the hell, you idiot," Karin said, crossing her arms in front of her chest and leaning back in her seat. "Have you heard of a door?"

"I was looking everywhere for you."

"Please," she drawled, rolling her eyes. "Too late for your love confessions. I'm not interested."

Sasuke paused, brow furrowed as he mouthed her words, trying to make sense of them.

Leaning against the wall, arms crossed, Sakura snorted at their banter.

"No, you moron," he said, shaking his head. "I need to talk to you about certain things."

"What did you do?"

He furrowed his brow, again, leaning back in his shock. He shook his head, looking up to spare Sakura a glance before deciding that Sakura—even with being from another village—was not someone he should be worried about listening to what he was going to say.

"I'm leaving on a mission."

Karin looked up at him, pushing her glasses back up her nose, an eyebrow raised. "And?"

"You have to take care of things here while I'm out."

"_Have to_? Why—I hate signing papers, Sasuke, damnit!"

Sasuke shrugged a shoulder. "It's just for a few days."

"And you have me," Sakura added, tucking strands of her pink hair behind her ear. "I have to help Naruto out every once in a while."

Karin glowered, picking up her pen and throwing it at him.

* * *

"So you're going on a mission, huh?"

He nodded, his hands shoved into the pockets of his nin-pants, his eye concentrating straight ahead.

Sakura smiled, clasping her hands behind her back and observing her surroundings. After Karin continued to sulk—and begrudgingly accepting her role as second in command—and Sasuke managed to tell her all that he could remember needing to be done in his days of absence, Sakura decided she should head back to the apartment and inspect Minori's progress on his task of the day.

"How long has it been since that happened?" she asked, tilting her head to look up at him.

Sasuke wasn't as tall as Naruto but he was still goddamn tall. Or maybe she was just short—maybe it was just _both_. They started off with both being the tallest and Naruto being the runt, but somewhere along the ride both idiots hit a growth spurt and she… kind of stopped at some point between thirteen and fourteen. It still left Sakura a bit annoyed every time.

"I haven't been on a proper mission since that single scouting mission I did in Konoha, after the war."

In other words, a very, very long time.

Missions were something that, after the first few, became equivalent with oxygen. It was engraved in their insides, carved onto their bodies with every battle scar they acquired. Stepping out of the field, no matter how long, always got to a shinobi's head after the first three days.

"I bet you'll have fun," she said, remembering that scouting mission herself. Though she hadn't volunteered, she had been required to go back in case there was any survivors found in need of immediate medical attention.

"We'll be escorting Inari back home," Sasuke said, after a moment of silence.

Shinobi mustn't talk about their missions to anyone out of their squadron. But upon hearing those words, she understood why he broke a rule he, as a Kage, should be reinforcing. Sakura's eyes brightened.

The wave of memories that name brought was threatening to drown her. Team Seven's first mission, Sasuke almost dying, Naruto's stupidity and risk saving them all and seeing Kakashi's Sharingan for the first time. It was like going around in a circle; it almost hurt.

"Now how did you manage that?" she asked, suddenly breathless.

She saw him shrug from her peripheral; it was a couple of steps, maybe even a block, before he said, "He requested help from our village. He's in the village just a mile from here."

Sakura nodded, licking her lower lip and embracing the wave of silence that washed over them. Sasuke wouldn't break it, she knew. He loved silence, basked in it, even. Silence was his oldest friend and as such, knew how to give across everything he had to say.

Their steps were sluggish; Sakura took her time to walk back because she liked to soak up the buzz of the village's second rush hour; it made her feel as if she were home, escaping her office and her stack of paperwork in favor of blending in with the crowd of villagers in search for produce to prepare dinner for their families.

"Thank you for accompanying me," she finally said as they turned a corner, the apartment complex coming into view.

Sasuke gave her another wave of nostalgia as he made a noise at the back of his throat sounding as simple as, "Hn."

* * *

Minori still fell light as a feather, regardless if hours had gone by since he healed three birds and one squirrel. As his ability to heal became faster and stronger, Sakura gave him a larger number of animals he needed to heal as his training for the day. Practice, she had said, for when you're on a mission or at war and your healing abilities are needed left and right.

He was fine with it—it exhilarated him to know that it was all becoming a bit easier. Unlike with the bunch of Oto-nins, Sakura was teaching him how to heal first and then about poisons and herbs and the like. She said it was better that way, so that it didn't feel like she was repeating herself every single day.

Honestly, Minori didn't even care—he was just glad he was becoming stronger.

But he still felt a bit wobbly—limbs like ramen, with tingles bubbling up and down his system. He walked towards the door upon hearing a knock on it, abandoning his task of setting up the table.

Ryuu, Eiko and Yukio were on the other side, all grins and smug smirks and friendly smiles.

Minori blinked at them offering a meek, "Hello…"

"What's up, Minori!" Ryuu greeted, extending an arm with his hand closed into a fist. "Guess what?"

Minori stared at the fist before slowly and cautiously bumping his own against it. "What?"

"We have a mission—leavin' tomorrow!"

In the week that had passed, Minori had become good friends with the three of them; good conversations between him and Ryuu, peaceful and mutual silence with Yukio and bickering between him and Eiko.

If they were to be gone… What was he going to do on his free time?

That was selfish, he countered, furrowing his brow.

"That's cool," he said, grinning crookedly.

"Wanna go get some ramen?"

Minori blinked, taking a step back and turning to stare at the kitchen where Sakura was placing something on the table, her green eyes on him and a smile on her lips.

"Uh…"

Sakura raised her eyebrows, giving him a nod as she grabbed his plate and waved him off.

"Sure," he said, turning back to face them. "Okay."

* * *

Like all diplomatic buildings, Otogakure's Kage Tower was enormous in size—the biggest building in the village. It was a faded lavender color, all concrete walls with steel lining and a rooftop built for a breathtaking view of the entire village.

And like all Kages, Sasuke lived within the tower—an entire floor all to himself with rooms and rooms and enough space for at least two families. His home was, to say the very least, very bland—some abstract painting here or there, scrolls with motivational proverbs or the like.

He didn't have anything but the bare necessities; a couch half thrown in the middle of an empty space and a half-empty bookshelf stacked with scrolls and a few books and kunai. There was a space for him to place his chokutō and all the other swords he'd collected through out the years ranging from a wakizashi, a katana, an o katana, a chisa katana and an o tanto and even ones that Karin didn't know the names of.

Cats were everywhere, sleeping and playing or eating or taking care of the place. She wasn't surprised—it seemed like Uchihas and cats had some sort of bond; like a contract of sorts.

"What are you doing here?"

She jabbed her elbow onto his stomach and whirled around, red hair flying everywhere and her glasses slipping down her nose. Her wine-red eyes landed on Sasuke and she was quick to relax her fighting stance. "Oh, it's you."

"Who the fuck else would it be," he wheezed, holding onto his stomach and glaring at her. "What do you want?"

Karin flipped her hair, pushed her glasses back up her nose and crossed her arms in front of her chest. One of the many cats purred and cuddled her ankles. "You're going on a mission."

"Che."

"You're going on a mission to the Land of Waves—outside the gates of Oto and—"

"Get on with it," he said, walking towards the lonesome couch and sitting down.

"If you were to come across… Suigetsu… You cannot say anything—absolutely anything—about my baby."

Sasuke looked up at her, his eye narrowing down and glowing red with a telltale of the Sharingan. That only tended to happen when he grew really angry and even then, Sasuke had been able to control his doujutsu in fear of hurting his only good eye left.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't want him to know a single thing about anything," Karin said, standing before him.

"Why not?"

"Because," she licked her lower lip, looking away and observing the peach-colored wall. Suigetsu would feel trapped if he were to find out he was to be a father and Karin could be the most selfish person in the world but she didn't think she could do that to him after he had a taste of the life he's always wanted to live. "Because I don't need him."

"What do you mean you don't need him, he's—"

"I have you, don't I?!"

He faltered.

"You've tried to kill me," she said, all straight face, "And you almost did. That's in the past and I let it go—but even with that history between us, you're like my best friend… God, I'm sounding like a total emotional toy. It's the hormones." She sighed, running her hands through her hair. "I don't… Need him… So please… just don't."

Sasuke was quiet for a very long time and Karin's heart felt like it would burst. Suigetsu couldn't know about anything—it was something Karin could even admit she was obsessing about. He would come to her, still, but she would not tell him a thing and when her belly would begin to swell with the growth of the child, then she'd lie through her teeth and say it's someone else's.

She didn't quite understand them, but she knew she had her reasons for this decision. And with her stubborn nature, Karin would be damned before she abandoned it.

"Fine," Sasuke finally spat out as he stood up. "Fine."

Karin exhaled, avoiding his eye even as she reached over and squeezed three of his fingers in what had quickly become an affectionate gesture of hers.

* * *

Otogakure was big on the firefly thing; they tended to buzz around, helping the street-lanterns to illuminate the streets. Summer was over and fall was taking its place but it seemed like the fireflies hadn't gotten the memo, yet. It was okay, though; Eiko really liked fireflies.

They walked down the quiet streets, still full from their ramen—four bowls for Ryuu, that endless pit—and quiet from intense conversations and laughs and screams. It was close to ten in the evening and the fireflies looked like descending stars.

Eiko smiled, softly, reaching up and attempting to grab some, completely glad her teammates were too busy being idiots to notice her moment.

"But how exactly do you heal things with your chakra?" Ryuu asked, crossing his arms behind his head, bending his torso to look up at the sky as he walked.

"It's a jutsu," Minori replied, walking in between Ryuu and Yukio. "_Shōsen Jutsu_."

"Is that right."

"Mmm."

Eiko rolled her eyes, lowering her arms and flexing her hands; she liked the sound the binding of her hand-wraps made. She felt light like a feather, like the fact that she was leaving the village for the first time, the following day, made her immune to gravity and it was a complete miracle she wasn't floating up into the sky.

She'd always dream of going on missions.

Her dad was a chuunin and when he'd return from missions, with a new cut or the weight of something on his shoulders and making him angrier than normal was so exhilarating. It was something Eiko wanted to experience—to be in a situation where she had to make a decision quickly, or she needed all her concentration and precision to make a deadly blow.

Eiko was all about the thrills and this… It was like a knick that'd open so many new opportunities.

"Eiko!"

She looked up, brown eyes wide. "What?"

"We're leaving," Ryuu said, nudging his chin towards Yukio. "See you at the village gates tomorrow and don't be late."

She sneered at him, giving Yukio a brief nod before Ryuu broke from the group, heading in one direction and Yukio heading in another. Eiko spared Minori a glance, watching as he watched the others leave with a sudden cloud of unease. She rolled her eyes and began to walk, completely taken aback when he followed.

She turned to look at him, brow furrowed and lips parted with her outrage. "I don't need an escort."

Minori turned to look at her, his brow furrowed and his dark eyes locking with hers for a brief moment before he quickly looked away. "I'm not escorting you… I have to go this way to get to the apartment."

Eiko looked up and took notice of the streets, scanning the houses with the lights still filtering out the windows. He was right… In this direction, he'd be led to the complex where he and his sensei were staying.

"Che," she scoffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

They walked in silence and Eiko was a bit surprised to feel that it was anything but tense. Minori was like a boulder blocking her road; she didn't know which way to go, to get around it, being cautious and wary about her direction and her actions.

He was someone she didn't know—at least she went to the academy with Ryuu and Yukio.

But Minori was from an entirely different village, training in an entirely different subject than her.

She didn't want to say he was intimidating but…

Eiko paused, pouting as she spared Minori another glance. She was quick to look away when he paused as well, a few feet away, taking a couple of steps back and tilting his head as if asking her what was wrong.

She cleared her throat.

"I live here."

Minori looked around at the houses, side-by-side, stuck together with closed shops on the landing floor.

"Oh."

Eiko nodded, slowly, taking a step back and then another.

He took a step closer, his brow furrowed and his eyes downcast as if thinking. He ran a hand through his hair, looking up at her and locking his eyes with hers, this time without looking away.

"Good luck on your mission," he said softly.

And then he turned around and walked away.

Eiko blinked her eyes, flustered and annoyed at herself for being stupid and faltering. She glowered, turning around and heading inside.

* * *

Sasuke left the office as soon as Karin arrived, annoyed and sleepy and paler than the day before. She repeated her request from the night before and reminded him of his promise of doing as she asked and Sasuke was so annoyed that he couldn't demand his ex-teammate to return to Oto and take care of the issue at hand.

He really just wanted to bash his head in.

Fucking Suigetsu, he thought, arriving to the village gates where his team was already waiting for him.

"You're late, sensei!" Ryuu and Eiko called.

He rolled his eye, fixing his pack over his shoulder and pausing in front of them. "Are you all ready."

"Yes!"

"Yeah!"

Yukio nodded, a glint of excitement in his dark eyes.

Sasuke snorted at the enthusiasm his team oozed out. He looked up at the forest that waited to eat them up, taking a deep breath and walking forwards. "Alright—"

"Hey!"

Pausing, he turned to look over his shoulder as Sakura jogged towards them, waving an arm in the air.

His brow furrowed.

"Hey," she repeated with an exhale, stopping in front of them and smiling.

"Sakura," he lowly said in greeting.

Sakura turned and smiled at the three behind him before handing them a small jar each and then turning to give Sasuke one of his own. He looked down at it for a while, sitting on her palm before he took it, opening the cap to look down at the green lotion inside.

"It's a healing balm," she explained. "I whipped some up yesterday so I can show the class. I made extra for you guys… You never know what can happen on these missions."

Their eyes locked as a silent conversation and a similar memory flashed through their minds.

"Wow, Sakura-san," Ryuu said, ever the charismatic idiot.

Eiko, to Sasuke's surprise, bowed in gratitude and Yukio, next to her, said, "Thank you."

Sasuke packed the jar in his pack, returning his attention to Sakura as he said, "Yes… Thank you."

She smiled at him, nodding her head and taking a couple of steps back and waving at them. Sasuke snorted, shaking his head and turning around, nudging his team that it was finally time to embark on their new mission.

They walked out the gates, hearing as Sakura called out a last, "Good luck guys!"

.

.

.


	9. novem

**dedication: **to scrypturient, hallous, lilithkiss, gemmaface and lilt-and-lithe for drawing amazing fanarts! Also, to Rxs for translating Snake Charmer into Spanish. And Paige because she's Paige.  
**summary:** Being a leader is akin to being a phoenix. You're always rising from the ashes.  
**notes:** 'SUP BITCHES. WHO ELSE HAS LOST THEIR PANTS BECAUSE THE MANGA'S GETTING PRETTY LEGIT? (WHO CALLED THAT FUCKING YIN SEAL. ME. THAT'S RIGHT. BOW DOWN TO ME NOW AND YOU CAN SURVIVE ONCE I TAKE OVER THE WORLD) Anyway, the summary's changed, more links up on my profile for fanarts and translations! Not to mention that I went back and edited the chapters, fixing inconsistencies, typos and whatnot. And lastly, enjoy a Team Stupid filled chapter!

* * *

**「****9****」**

For the majority of the trip to the nearby village, they walked in silence, the only sound being the ruffle of the shrub and the crunch of the leaves they stepped over. Sasuke brought up the rear, his eyes on his students as they all walked with a hop to their stride—excited that they were leaving the village for the first time. Their heads turned from left to right, observing each tree they passed and scaring off small wildlife that came too close to them.

Sasuke smirked at their antics—even Eiko was free of her usual haughtiness and twirling around in place as she observed everything.

"Hey, Sasuke-sensei?" Ryuu slowed his steps so he could be walking by his side, and by the glint in his blue eyes, Sasuke didn't think he was going to like where this was going.

"Hn?"

"So is Sakura-san, like, your girlfriend?"

Sasuke felt as if he was going to choke.

He quickly composed himself, pulling at the collar of his black nin-shirt, furrowing his brow and clearing his throat. "No."

"But," Ryuu went on; grinning as he caught Sasuke's faltering. "You like her, don't you, sensei?"

"I—"

"Please, as if Sakura-san would give sensei the time of day," Eiko said, flipping her magenta hair over her shoulder.

"Wh—"

"Have you ever had a girlfriend, sensei?" Ryuu asked, tilting his head.

"I—"

"Who would date him?" Eiko countered.

"Is Karin-san anything to you?"

"Karin-san has better taste than that!"

Sasuke pressed his lips together and smacked them both at the back of their heads to quiet them down. He cleared his throat, his eye closed as he tried to regain his composure. His students asked him a lot of questions, more so about his life in Konoha and things of the past. He always said he'd tell them one day, but this… Was entirely different and a little on the ridiculous side.

Ryuu rubbed at the back of his head, pouting as he muttered, "Jeez, if you're not about all that, you could've just said so."

"Tch," Eiko scoffed, pretending to finger-comb her hair in her attempts to sooth her sore head.

Yukio watched them with a smile on his lips, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his burgundy jacket and looking away so they wouldn't see him chuckling.

"So why do we need to escort a bridge builder, sensei?" Ryuu asked, fixing his wristbands and flexing his hands.

Sasuke's thoughts went back to when he was twelve and on his first mission with his team; they were escorting Tazuna, the bridge builder, under a simple C-rank mission. In reality, it turned out to be a B-rank mission and Tazuna needed bodyguards to protect him from a thug named Gatō who wanted to end his life so he wouldn't finish building what was now the Great Naruto Bridge.

But that couldn't be happening now, Sasuke mused.

Time of peace meant no shady business and while there were still rogues running around, causing havoc here and there, it wasn't frequent enough to cause a problem.

"Perhaps he needs the company," he said, at last. "Bridge builders carry their tools and such; he might need help carrying everything back home."

"Lame," Eiko sighed, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Aw, Eiko, you're never satisfied," Ryuu said, giving her a light sneer. "I think it's cool we're out of the village, for once."

Sasuke smirked, placing a hand atop Ryuu's head of messy spikes.

The village came into view after another half mile and Sasuke could feel his team's excitement begin to manipulate the air around them. Chuckling, he led them towards the gates.

* * *

Inari was young.

Eiko had imagined their charge to be some old guy, wrinkly and with back pains. That would have at least explained why he'd need help carrying his stuff back to his village, right? But the guy that greeted them at the entrance of the village had been a young man, younger than Sasuke yet older than them; hair as messy and spiky as Ryuu's and a grin that split his face in half.

And by the way he addressed Sasuke, it would seem they'd known each other before.

In a way, Eiko was not surprised. She knew her sensei had left his village when he was young in favor of being trained under Orochimaru's guidance; it was only natural that he'd met so much people, right?

But Inari seemed too chipper to have any association with the old Otogakure…

Upon leaving Yugakure—which, according to Sasuke and the academy, used to be a ninja village before it decided to become a civilian, goods-trading one—they lined up in a formation so that their charge was safe from all sides. Yukio and Ryuu were on Inari's right and left side, respectively, Sasuke led them at the front and she brought up the rear.

Sasuke had said it was because her water gunshots would be perfect to take down anyone that jumped out of the trees.

And to make matters a bit more ridiculous, he didn't even have any equipment for them to help him carry back home.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest, looking down at the way her nin-sandals stepped over dead leaves, the metal plates on her shin-guards glinting under the few rays of sunlight that sneaked through the tree branches.

"How is Tazuna," she heard Sasuke ask Inari.

Who the hell was Tazuna, she asked herself.

"Still alive, thankfully," Inari replied. "Just retired… And old."

She heard Sasuke chuckle. Eiko rolled her eyes and wondered when the excitement was going to happen.

* * *

They set camp as soon as the sky turned dark. Sasuke set up a light fire while Ryuu and Yukio worked on fixing up a tent for Inari.

Eiko stood atop an old, thick log—on the side that hovered above a small lake—her eyes scanning for the fishes swimming around. She'd need five, she reminded herself; Ryuu would just have to suck up his never ending appetite and have one fish like the rest of them because she wasn't going to go out her way and catch another three fishes just for him.

She slowly took out five shurikens, each having chakra strings tied to them so she could reel them back in without much problem. Her eyes glued onto the fishes, jaw tensing as she gathered her concentration before she threw the shurikens at her prey.

Eiko grinned, beginning to pull them back out of the water by the chakra strings. She hadn't expected to be pulled into the lake, though.

She returned to camp, soaking wet from head to toes and with five fishes in between her arms.

Ryuu and Yukio turned towards her, grinning and choking on their laughter upon watching her blue tank-top drip excess water, creating a puddle under her feet. Eiko sneered at them, handing Sasuke the five fishes and beginning to wring her clothes dry, undoing the bindings wrapped around her hands and up her arms—they were as drenched as the rest of her; what good would they be now?

"Jeez, don't you know how to fish?" Ryuu asked in between his fit of laughter.

Eiko mimicked him, throwing one of the two balls of sopping wraps at him and glaring at Yukio who was snickering under his breath.

"Why don't _you_ go next time, then?!"

"Do I have to come back all wet, too?"

"I'm going to—"

"I'll mop the floor with you! You're wet enough, anyway!"

Eiko growled, taking her sandals off and unbuckling her shin-guards from behind. "You're an asshole!"

"And you're a failure—they say to become one with your element but I didn't know that meant to dive into the lake!"

She stood up from the log she was sitting on, fully intent to go and knock some sense into the idiot with a couple of punches to the head. She stalked over to him, yanking him by the material of his white shirt, her other hand curled into a fist ready to make a mark.

"Quit it," Sasuke said, from his position by the fire where he was arranging the fishes on twigs, close enough so they would roast. He looked up at them, his eyebrow raised.

"Ryuu's being an asshole," Eiko said, shoving Ryuu away from her.

He fixed his shirt, pouting as he gave her a quick glare. "It's not my fault you suck!"

"Eiko, Ryuu," Sasuke called out, his tone a bit more firm.

They both crossed their arms in front of their chests, both looking away from each other with identical sulking expressions on their faces. A little ways from them, Yukio sobered up, pressing his lips together to keep from laughing any further and cause any attention to shift towards him.

"Well," Inari said as he came out of the tent. "Isn't that a bit nostalgic, huh, Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked away from his students and pretended he hadn't heard anything.

* * *

The forest was pitch black; the fire Sasuke had set alight, earlier, was down to its final embers and once it died out Eiko was sure the forest would be dark enough so she wouldn't be able to see her hand in front of her face. She curled into her sleeping back, slowly inching herself closer towards Yukio, who slept in the middle to keep her and Ryuu from bickering some more.

But she was starting to regret allowing him to sleep in between them; at least if she slept with Ryuu and Yukio on either side of her she'd feel a little… more at peace.

Not safer because she could definitely protect herself, of course.

Eiko clenched her eyes closed, scooting closer towards Yukio and convincing herself that she wasn't scared.

Just… Overwhelmed.

Yeah, overwhelmed.

And not scared.

She heard shuffling and she froze.

Okay, it was probably Sasuke who was perched on one of the tree branches, keeping watch. Or, maybe, it was Ryuu who was shifting in his own sleeping bag—or, or Inari… yeah.

Something like that.

Definitely not some rogue ninja hiding in the shadows, preparing himself to slaughter them all in their sleep.

Eiko gulped.

There was shuffling, again—like the shrubs being rustled because someone was standing around or crouching down with some weapons in their hands, ready to make a massacre out of them. Eiko stiffened up, hiding her face on what she figured was Yukio's shoulder under the sleeping bag… or maybe it wasn't. Maybe Yukio was taken down in those fifteen minutes she'd dozed off and she didn't realize it…

…Maybe everyone else was dead and it was now her turn.

Eiko whimpered, completely distraught that she had been reduced to such a little girl in the middle of a forest. But it was okay because she was about to die.

The bushes rustled some more, louder and impossible to ignore.

He was coming.

He was—

Eiko sat up, screeching her lungs out.

Next to her, Yukio sat up and screamed which caused Ryuu to sit up and join in the screaming, making their screams ten times louder.

There was a yelp and a thud; Sasuke had been startled, causing him to jump and fall off of the tree branch he had been perched on. From the tent, Inari quickly came out, rubbing at one of his eyes while the other one looked around with a hint of confusion.

"What—_what_?" Sasuke questioned, sitting up and swatting twigs out of his hair. He glared at them with his single eye, his lips pressed together in that way that signaled he was absolutely _seething_. With a quick little jutsu he got the fire to light up again, just in time to watch a rabbit come out from one of the bushes, running away in the direction farthest from them.

Sasuke stared at it until it was out of view before he slowly turned to face his student.

The three of them wore the same expression of mortification and embarrassment, hugging their sleeping bags close to their chests.

Inari snorted, crawling back into his tent.

"I don't want to know," Sasuke hissed through his teeth. "Get some sleep. And try to keep it quiet."

Eiko quickly stood from her sleeping bag, throwing it in between Yukio and Ryuu and making sure they were close enough to be able to feel their arms against hers. Pride be damned.

* * *

When they arrived to the Land of Waves, their camping skills were a bit more refined. At least they didn't confuse rabbits with an enemy attack.

Eiko hadn't been able to live that one down.

Everyone received Inari with waves and big grins and from the little that she'd paid attention during the stories he'd tell Ryuu and Yukio on their trip, it was because his grandfather had been a very well-known bridge builder before he retired—he had even built the Great Naruto Bridge.

Which, she had also heard, was named after Konoha's current Hokage after he, Sasuke and Sakura—along with their sensei—had helped him return home and thus be able to finish the bridge.

Inari led them to a small house where he, his grandfather and his mother lived. Eiko watched as Sasuke paused in front of the house, his shoulders stiffening for a second before he stepped inside. They followed him in, looking around the small yet spacious place; Inari's mother greeted them with a smile, ushering them to get cozy and feel at home.

Eiko, Ryuu and Yukio kicked their sandals off and then slid onto the chairs at the table in the middle of the kitchen.

"My," Inari's mother greeted Sasuke, "how have you grown!"

Sasuke gave her a curt nod, murmuring a quick, "Hello, Tsunami-san."

"Who's that—Naruto? Ah! No… it's Sasuke!" Inari's grandfather walked into the house from the back door, a towel around his shoulders and his clothes dusty with saw-dust. He walked over to Sasuke, looking him up and down before giving a grin that looked a lot like Inari's. "Jeez, kid, you're a giant now!"

"Tazuna," Sasuke greeted.

"And these kiddies?"

"My students," Sasuke said, "Eiko, Ryuu and Yukio."

Tazuna threw his head back, laughing. "Wow, how the time flies by, eh, Tsunami? Remember when this guy came in with that Naruto and Sakura? Now look at him! With his own students! And I hear you're a Kage now, too?"

Sasuke nodded, "Otogakure's my village."

"Bah! Everything's sure change…" Tazuna grabbed the last empty seat on the table, sitting down and asking, "How are the others? Sakura? Naruto and Kakashi?"

Eiko watched Sasuke stiffen, again, bowing his head and clearing his throat—as if trying to regain his composure.

"Naruto is Hokage, now—"

"Hah! So the brat actually achieved it!"

"And Sakura is top medic; she is currently in my village, training medical shinobi… Kakashi… Kakashi-sensei went missing in action during the Fourth Shinobi War. He has been considered dead."

The room was quiet.

Eiko looked around at the shocked expression on Tsunami, Tazuna and Inari's faces while Sasuke stared outside a window. In the academy, they were taught that in the Fourth Shinobi War a lot of powerful shinobi were lost; like Konoha's Godaime and Kumo's Raikage. She knew Sasuke had fought in the war but she hadn't known he lost someone important like his sensei.

"Well," Tsunami sighed, shattering the tension in the air. "How about dinner!"

* * *

During dinner, they were told a story.

It was a story about a genin team and their estranged sensei. They were sent to escort Tazuna the bridge builder back home. It was a simple C-rank mission, much like their own; except for this other genin team, it was actually a B-rank in disguise because the bridge builder didn't have the money to pay for such a high mission.

The little genin team and their sensei didn't know, though—the sensei had a hunch, because he was such a smart and remarkable shinobi, but he didn't say a single thing.

Along the way, they were ambushed by some rogue ninjas in which one of the two boys of the genin team choked up and the other one took initiative, protecting the bridge builder and his female teammate without a single hesitance. It was then that the sensei brought the subject of the matter out, asking the bridge builder why he had lied about the ranking of his request.

It turned out the bridge builder had a bounty on his head by a thug who turned his village into a starving one because of his shady business in the trades and the bridge builder was building a bridge to connect their village to the Land of Fire and thus not need the thug's shady transportation system anymore.

Everything went downhill after that and they were soon dealing with rogue ninja from Kirigakure.

The genin team's sensei engaged in a battle with him and then was quickly assisted by the two genin boys. The battle was cut short and they went on their way, arriving to the bridge builder's home. There, the sensei continued his team's training, teaching them how to summon chakra to the soles of their nin-sandals so they could walk over surfaces, using a nearby tree as an example which he climbed up and carved a line at the very top.

While his female student reached the mark in her first try, the two boys took the entire day and only succeeded upon giving into their pride and using their teamwork skills.

And then things went bad again.

The rogue ninja from Kirigakure returned and he brought a friend.

The sensei engaged in the battle with him while the two boys attempted to handle the friend and the female student protected the bridge builder.

Worse came to worse and one of the two boys presumably died in which the female student was devastated because he was her love and she kneeled next to his body, reciting one of the many shinobi rules taught to them in the academy, crying her heart out and only crying harder when the dead boy returned to life.

With the threats all gone, the bridge builder finish the bridge that'd bring his village out of poverty, naming it the Great Naruto Bridge out of pure gratitude towards the genin boy, his team and his sensei.

* * *

Eiko stared at Sasuke, understanding that he had been the boy that had presumably died, he had been the boy the female student—Sakura—had cried over and he had had trouble with his teammates and teamwork.

And suddenly Sasuke didn't look like the distant sensei that didn't know what he was doing, that abandoned them in favor of his office work or whatever else. Suddenly, there was depth to her sensei's character because he apparently had his flaws and his moments of failure and he never allowed himself to be manipulated by them.

"Wow," Ryuu gasped, staring at Sasuke with as much awe as she and Yukio. "Sensei, you're so _cool_!"

Sasuke, for his part, refused to look at any of them, choosing to look down at his meal.

Eiko wanted to be just like that, she decided. She wanted to risk her life for what she believed in, too. And if that meant protecting her teammates—here, she spared Yukio and Ryuu a glance—then she could do that too. She wanted to be remembered the way Sasuke and his teammates were remembered.

* * *

The trip back home proved to be as uneventful as the one to the Land of Waves.

They walked without a formation, laid back and without much of a care. That didn't mean they weren't cautious, of course, Sasuke had made sure to drill in their heads that shinobi must always be on their guard regardless of the setting and the situation.

Eiko and Ryuu continued to bicker, sometimes punching and shoving each other until Sasuke broke them apart and gave them a quick smack to the head to make them get their senses back.

Yukio walked while being in his own world—not that much of a difference but Sasuke caught the first few steps of him coming out of his shell. His team was made up of three idiots—a brash idiot, a smart idiot and a shy idiot, and together it seemed that they made something good. Not much was one during their first mission, but it was a success and their teamwork, as little as it was needed, was exceptional.

Sasuke felt… Proud. He felt proud of his team stupid.

* * *

It happened when they were half a day away from arriving home.

They were walking through the forest with Sasuke bringing up the rear. He felt a disturbance in the air—sensing a presence that was not one of theirs and impossible to interpret the intentions to. He was quick to stiffen up, calling his team up and signaling them with a hard look; he watched as Ryuu and Yukio took out some shurikens and Eiko took out a kunai in each of her hands, their eyes scanning their surroundings.

They remained like that, silent and stiff enough to wonder if they were even breathing.

Suddenly, Sasuke felt the presence behind him and before he could whirl around and attack, he felt something—a finger—pressed against his temple in a familiar gesture that he recognized almost instantly. He watched as his students' eyes grew wide, their mouths dropping ajar and their arms dropping to their sides.

"Suigetsu," Sasuke said, stiffly.

"Bang," Suigetsu breathed out, poking Sasuke's temple before dropping his hand. "What happened, Sasuke, you sure had your guard down to let _me_ catch ya by surprise, huh?"

Sasuke blinked his eye, signaling his students to calm down.

"So y'on a mission, huh?" Suigetsu turned his violet eyes to the three of them, raising his eyebrow and flashing them his sharp teeth as he grinned at them. "Cute kiddies. So ain't Kages s'pose to stay in the village? Y'left your place vulnerable, huh?"

"No," Sasuke replied in a drawl, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Karin is taking care of it."

He caught Suigetsu's moment of silence before he grunted, walking around and inspecting the three twelve-year olds, a hand rubbing his chin and the other one holding his chin. Sasuke's eyes were on the sword strap around his back almost twice his size.

"So wha'cha up to, kiddies? Didja like your mission? Is Sasuke still as much as a prick as he was when he was sixteen because, _wow_, the shit I had to put up with, let me tell you." He flashed them his teeth again, violet eyes glinting.

"What are you doing around here, Suigetsu," Sasuke demanded, clenching his hands into fists.

He shrugged a shoulder, waving a hand in the air. "I'm a busy man, Sasuke, I'm searchin' for m'swords. Obviously I'm gonna pass around a couple of times. Jeez, can you believe this guy," Suigetsu asked Yukio, jabbing a thumb in Sasuke's direction.

"Busy man my ass," Sasuke sneered, his temper flaring at his words.

_God_, he just wanted to smash his face against a tree and kick his ass. But then Karin's words began to echo in his head and his anger only grew stronger; but he swallowed it all, settling in reminding himself that as a Kage, he couldn't act on his temper—much less in front of his students.

He closed his eye and counted to five.

"Anyway, just wanted to say hello," Suigetsu drawled, bending over and smirking Eiko. He stood back to his full height, walking by Sasuke and smirking at him.

Sasuke clenched his fists until he swore he felt his nails dig into his palms and caused crescent shaped scratches that oozed a bit of blood.

"Say hello to Karin for me, 'kay?"

And Sasuke blew up, snatching Yukio's shuriken, he whirled around and threw it at him with perfect precision; Suigetsu morphed into his water form, splashing everywhere before reforming. Time paused as they glared at each other with fury before they both turned and walked away.

* * *

After that exchange, Sasuke was in a very foul mood.

They camped out because he disappeared—not too far, they knew because they could feel his infuriated presence, but far enough so they weren't at the crossroads of it. Eiko, Ryuu and Yukio sat around a fire that Ryuu put up, roasting a squirrel and two birds they managed to get.

"Some first mission, right," Ryuu said, blinking his blue eyes. He whistled and shook his head in his astonishment.

Eiko picked at one of the birds, inching it closer so it'd roast better. "Completely different from what I had expected."

They both turned to Yukio who pursed his lips, cracking his knuckles and sighing.

"Sasuke-sensei was really angry when he saw that guy," he said, lifting his eyes up from the fire to spare them both a glance.

They nodded their heads, all three sighing.

The sun had completely set, casting the forest into shadows and the breeze to blow by without mercy. Eiko scooted closer to her teammates in search for warmth; wearing a tanktop and shorts wasn't all that resilient to the wind. She heard a zipper being undone and watched, with wide eyes, when Yukio handed her his burgundy jacket with a boyish grin on his lips.

Eiko turned to Ryuu who watched the exchanged with raised eyebrows before she turned back to Yukio and grinned back at him, accepting the jacket.

"Thanks," she said, zipping it up and allowing it to engulf her in both its size and warmth.

"Do you think it's because of that story old man Tazuna told us, that Sasuke-sensei is big about the teamwork thing?" Ryuu asked, picking up the squirrel.

Eiko grabbed one of the birds and took a quick bite. "Maybe."

They ate in silence, after that and it wasn't until they were huddling into their sleeping bags that Sasuke returned towering over them and eyeing them for a second before he took his perch on a tree branch and kept watch.

.

.

.


	10. decem

**dedication: **to Renee, Rhea, Paige and everyone omg I love you all.  
**summary: **Being a leader is akin to being a phoenix. You're always rising from the ashes.  
**notes: **Thanks for the support, everyone! Here's... This... Chapter. I'm gonna go hide under a rock and only surface to write the next chapter which I am excited for. Wheee~

* * *

**「****10****」**

Minori sat up, a gasp dying out in the hollow of his throat. His eyes were wide and his forehead was damp with sweat; he looked around, watching as the sunlight snuck in through the curtains and lit his room up. It was morning… Whatever he had been dreaming was just that—a dream. Not even a nightmare; just a dream.

He ran a hand through his hair, taking a deep breath and blinking whatever bit of sleep was left out of his eyes. He sighed, rolling himself out of bed and heading towards the shower.

The dream was vague—like a fantasy, almost, if he could even call it that. He remembered someone was there and that their voice was lighter than his, making her a girl. Minori wasn't an expert with the x-chromosome, in all actuality, girls freaked him out more than anything. Especially girls like Mizushima Eiko—if anything, she backed his resolve in keeping away from girls until he figured out why they were so… So _weird. _

Like Kasumi, from his old team with Hinata-sensei.

Minori shook his head, stepping out of his quick shower and dressing himself for the day. He left the room, tying his hitai-ate around his forehead as he went, and pushing any thoughts of girls out of his mind.

Sakura was in the kitchen, already, making a quick breakfast—onigiri, for the thousandth time, not that Minori could even mind.

"Good morning, shrimp!"

Minori grunted in the back of his throat, sitting on one of the two chairs in the barstool, tying binds around his right thigh to strap his weapon's pouch over. He looked up, watching how she patted some of the sticky rice together, adding tomatoes to the center and then patting them into shape. Hed be training with Sakura for a few months, now, and in that time he'd learnt that Sakura wasn't as homey as most women and she wasn't full set in her career like his mother.

Sakura was a bit of both, Minori had come to realize.

She wasn't an exceptional cook, which would explain why they'd eat onigiri for breakfast and ramen—or takeout—for dinner. It was quick and basic.

And by the way he'd sometimes hear—without wanting to, it's just that his ears picked up on his surroundings—her talk with Ino-san, back at home, she was good at girl stuff… Like… Feelings and stuff like that. Minori wrinkled his nose, standing up and walking over to help her out.

They always made enough for lunch—a few for breakfast and a few more for lunch and then dinner would be what filled them up for the rest of the day.

"Sakura-sensei?"

She looked up from arranging the tomatoes on the wad of rice in her hand, a smile on her lips. By default, Minori's eyes paused on the diamond on her forehead, perfectly shaped and violet-red. He wondered what color his would be; but then he shook his head, trying to concentrate on the now and the embarrassing question he was going to ask.

"Hm?" she prodded, setting the riceball on the platter with the other completed ones.

"How…" he wrinkled his nose again, trying to figure out how to word his question. "How do you know when you like someone… In… Well, in _that_ way?"

He saw Sakura's green eyes grow a bit wide, her cheekbones growing as pink as her hair as she tried to clear her throat. He supposed she hadn't been ready for that kind of question and Minori didn't exactly blame her. They didn't really talk about things like that—she had been questioning him about his interactions with Ryuu, Yukio and Eiko, a pleased grin on her lips when he'd tell her they considered him their friend but… Girls?

It's just that Sakura was the closest thing to a parent that he'd had in a long while; maybe not even a _parent_ per se, but at least an older sibling.

And he was almost thirteen; he was bound to start questioning things, right?

"Well," Sakura began, taking a deep breath. "The simple way of putting it is… That you get this weird feeling in your chest. Like fuzziness and flip flops and butterflies and you suddenly catch yourself smiling for no reason at all, but it's just the fact that you _know _this person—just knowing they're alive—and it's so great a feeling. It's like hanging off the edge of a cliff, toes dangling and one deep breath can make you free fall."

Minori swallowed, nodding his head, slowly. "And… the other way?"

"The other way?"

"Of putting it… You said there was a simple way… but what's the other way?"

Sakura looked back down at the riceball she had been patting for the last five minutes, setting it down and grabbing another. "When you have feelings for someone, you get the courage to be strong for them—if they are ever to need you, you can be reliable and even if they don't need you, you're still there because you care. You're patient and strong and you'll follow them into their darkness, pull them out and show them there is more to things than hiding in yesterday's pain. And even when they don't return your feelings, you're okay because you're still under the same sky and with that, you silently and strongly wait for that moment."

"What moment?"

"When they'll love you back."

Minori furrowed his brow. "But what if that moment never comes?"

Sakura shrugged. "Then it just doesn't come."

It was quiet, then, as Minori tried to absorb everything. It seemed… Rather difficult and too much work—dedication, even. It wasn't like having feelings for family, where you just know that they'll reciprocate and there'd be no reason at all to have to show it, to have to wait. But the look on Sakura's face made it seem like it was the best feeling in the world, despite of the waiting and despite of any other side effects… He furrowed his brow.

"Sensei?"

"Hm?"

"Have you felt like that before?"

Sakura turned to him, her smile nostalgic and her eyes glassy. "Of course."

He looked back down to the lumpy riceball in his hand.

"What's with the questions, shrimp?"

"I—"

"Is there an Oto girl that's caught your attention?"

"I—_no_!"

Sakura threw her head back and laughed, elbowing his arm and giving him a wink. Flustered, Minori hid his reddened face, settling into finishing making breakfast.

* * *

"Ugh, now I can shower properly—I smell like death."

"Nah, you always smell like that."

Eiko whirled around to glare at him, her magenta hair whipping in the hair and looking just about translucent in the sunlight. She opened her mouth, ready to fall for the bait and commence another round of endless arguing with Ryuu. Sasuke sighed, stepping in between them and placing a hand on either of their heads, pushing them forwards.

After the stiff night, where he watched his students sleep after a rare sight of amity, Sasuke gathered up the loose ends of his anger and tucked it back into the marrow of his bones, away from the tranquility and emancipation of the thick chains that tied him to a life of hate and blood and lies. Those days were gone, he had to remind himself. Those days were gone and this was a new him—this was the _true_ him. After everything… That was all in the past now.

It's just that Suigetsu angered him.

The fact that Karin was within these walls, living a life and carrying a child on her own while he was out there… It was infuriating to even consider.

And to add, Karin didn't want to tell him.

Sasuke wasn't one to butt into other people's lives. But Karin was… his close friend; the cousin of his best friend—it was as if she was his own relative, as foolish as it sounded. Sasuke wasn't one to let anyone in easily, let alone consider anyone to such a level. But Karin was in the very small circle of loved ones he had gathered since his dark time.

And to know she was going through that… Annoyed him.

But it was all tucked away, safe and away from eating his mind. He'd spent the entire night meditating and concentrating that anger that fueled him to the back of his mind for him to use at a later time, when circumstances called for it.

And he was fine, now.

Eiko, Ryuu and Yukio had not uttered a word after that, though upon waking up they did give him identical wary looks and Sasuke felt… it was his duty to apologize to them for such display. Sasuke had grown up from the lost teenager to a leveled adult; he had never lost his patience, not even with Eiko's jabs and haughtiness.

They might be descendants of who they were but his students didn't know aggression and jadedness. They were as sheltered as every young shinobi raised after the Fourth War.

"Sensei?"

Sasuke blinked out of his reverie. "Hn?"

"When do you think we'll go on our next mission?" Ryuu asked, arms crossed behind his head, posture slouched as he walked without a single care in the world.

He felt the expectant stares of the other two on him, Eiko coming into view with her hands crossed and her eyes narrowed snootily.

"We'll see."

"Aw, you can't say that!" Ryuu whirled around, all three of his students getting in his way and preventing him from walking any further. They clung onto him, their eyes wide like lost kittens begging for shelter.

"Didn't we do good, sensei?" Yukio asked, softly, his brow furrowed and his blond hair ruffled by the soft breeze.

Sasuke blinked his eye.

"Didn't we do what you told us to?" Eiko prodded, raising a thin eyebrow and jutting her lower lip out in her version of a pout.

"Is it because of that night with the rabbit, sensei? Eiko's stupid, you can't punish Yukio and me for her stupidity!"

"Excuse _you_!"

Sasuke sighed, pushing through them and shaking his head. "We've barely just arrived from this mission."

"All the more reason to go to the next one!"

He rolled his eye, nodding in acknowledgement at the villagers that greeted and welcomed him back.

"Go home and rest. We'll pick up on training tomorrow."

They all sighed, dejected, and split apart, each heading in their own direction.

Sasuke wondered, sometimes, what he was going to do with them.

* * *

The morning went by quick. It was something Minori had learned to be thankful for.

After his morning routine of practicing his Mystical Palm—he was getting much, much better, thankfully—he was heading towards the training grounds to maybe get in a few warm ups before Sakura met up with him to begin their weekly taijutsu sparing. As the days had been going by, Minori found himself gaining a bit more confidence in his fighting style; he always left for the training grounds early so he could practice a bit on his own and admire everything he _could do _and never realized it possible until now.

By now, he knew every inch of Otogakure and walking around wasn't difficult in the slightest—he could even do it with no sort of attention on his sense of direction. His legs just led him to his destination. He supposed he had Ryuu, Yukio and Eiko to thank for that… In the week that set their friendships into stone, they'd led him around everywhere, pointing out little facts and the like.

Minori could even consider Oto feeling like home, now.

He walked through the trees, into the training ground that his friends usually trained in, fully set on beginning with some quick pull ups. But then he stopped in his tracks when he heard something like water—or was it like _ice_? It shattered like ice, anyway. He swallowed a bit thickly, taking a step further to catch a better glimpse.

Eiko—it was Eiko.

She was sprinting around the training ground, shooting out numerous of decent sized darts of ice from her mouth. But she came to an abrupt halt, the shattering of the darts gone in an instance—so fast, Minori actually thought she'd already sensed his presence. She was slouched in her stance, knees bent and hands hanging limp at her side as she tried to regain her breath, her magenta hair a tousled mess behind her.

Minori pressed his lips together, set on turning around and finding a new place to do his training when the movements of her hands as she prepared to give her jutsu another go. He froze in his tracks, half turned, as he watched her inhale air, her chest puffing out, before she leaned forwards and began to spit out the darts. A second later, she was sprinting, again, and making movements as if she were in battle; as if she were being attacked and she was moving her body so the attacks would miss her and her jutsu wouldn't be broken.

He was transfixed and he didn't even know it. It was only until he saw her do a funny looking twist that caused her to hastily stop her jutsu in favor of crying out in something like pain as she crumbled to the ground, that he realized he hadn't even been breathing.

She was saying obscenities under her breath, slapping at her ankle for two seconds before she attempted to crawl in her efforts of grabbing momentum to stand back up.

The aspiring med-nin within him snapped awake, at that.

"Wait!"

He dashed towards her.

Eiko's wide brown eyes, glassy with pain, shot up to settle on him, her brow furrowed and her teeth bare as she clenched her jaw to keep from sobbing.

"You twisted your ankle," he said, crouching down in front of her, reaching for her leg.

"No!" She shifted away from him, hissing in pain. "I'm fine!"

Minori blinked, turning his dark eyes towards her and… Admiring how she looked with the thin layer of sweat on her forehead, dampening her forelocks and sticking them against her skin, thin lips parted as she continued to protest and attest that she was fine.

"C'mon," he said, attempting for her leg again. She slapped his hands away. Minori looked towards her, again, his brow furrowing in slight annoyance. "Would you quit that?"

"I'm _fine_," she repeated for the umpteenth time.

Minori leaned back in the balls of his feet, resting his forearms on his bent knees. "Fine, stand up then."

Eiko stared at him, brown eyes darkening with her own annoyance; but Minori figured it was annoyance at herself, yet aimed towards him. It was just something that he'd taken notice of when it came to Eiko—any sort of anger she felt towards herself, whatever the reason, she aimed at someone else. Ryuu was normally the victim of it… Except Ryuu wasn't here and it was just her and him…

He felt his cheeks heat up at the realization, the tip of his ears burning.

"Okay," she sighed, not even bothering in attempting to stand up. Her pride was probably wounded, Minori observed. "Okay, fine… Do whatever it is you have to do."

He dropped to his knees, gently grabbing at her ankle and pulling it closer towards him. "I'm gonna need to get your shin guard off."

"Okay."

Minori reached for the back buckles, ignoring the way his fingers twitched out of pure nerves. The clasps gave way with quiet clicks and the shin guard dropped to the ground with a thud. Her ankle was bare, then, and all that was stopping him from healing it was his anxiety that seemed to surface a lot when he was under Eiko's scrutinizing eyes.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and summoned the right amount of chakra. Her eyes never left his hands.

* * *

Sakura popped a cucumber into her mouth, listening to the way the barbecued chicken sizzled on the grill in the center of the table. She looked out at the village from a window, watching as the sky rapidly turned dark and the stars soon came into view. Her right cheekbone throbbed from a punch Minori managed to land on her and Sakura couldn't help but tilt her lips upward.

Her little shrimp was getting good.

His full potential was still far from breaking out, but Minori was so full set in trying to be of some use—prove himself his worth—that his attempts came with satisfactory results. He wasn't a dull kid to teach; he had no special abilities and no doujutsu that'd automatically put him on top of the list. He was just a boy… Just a boy.

Sakura turned towards him, a fond smile on her lips.

"The day's gone by quick, huh?"

He looked up at her, his messy forelocks falling over his eyes at the lack of a hitai-ate to pull them back. His dark eyes turned towards the window, his jaw moving in a lazy manner as he chewed on his food. "It has."

"That's when you know you're settled in," she said, winking at him.

"Sensei, why didn't we heal our wounds?"

Sakura blinked, her eyes scanning at the bruises that littered his arms and the slight swell of his left jaw that explained why he chewed so slowly. She smirked, proud that he was taking the wounds in stride and pushing the pain to the back of his mind. She liked to hang out with her student, let their bond grow stronger not as just teacher and student but as the family they were growing to be. But she couldn't help but add some training to basic things and though he never full on out picked up on them, his hunches were always on par.

"Well," she began, popping another cucumber into her mouth, "think about it. On a battlefield, what's a medic's main job?"

"Heal the rest of their squadron."

"Correct." She picked up at her cup of tea, taking a quick sip. "And…"

He furrowed his brow in that way of his, where he'd chew on his lower lip, eyes half-lidded as he rolled thoughts around his mine, adding two and two and then adding that with four until he'd come with a conclusion. And then he'd look up at her, his dark eyes lighting up a nice shade of gray, lips twisting into the most boyish grin she'd ever seen. Kind of how he was grinning right then, stabbing his chopsticks onto the tender piece of chicken in his excitement.

"To experience having to wait to heal my own wounds in favor of my teammates!"

Sakura raised an eyebrow at him, "Hm?"

"That's what you're doing right now. In order to save chakra for my teammates, I must endure simple cuts and bruises so long as they don't hinder me immobile. And during our taijutsu spar, the most I've gotten are bruises and sores and a few cuts. I can still move and so I don't have to heal myself."

Sakura threw her head back and laughed, reaching over and ruffling his messy hair. "Minori, you're something else entirely."

"Huh?"

"You're ten kinds of wonderful," she said, sobering up and staring at him with a doting twinkle in her eyes.

His eyes went wide, a deep rose color flooding up to his cheeks. Minori looked away in his embarrassment, taking a quick bite of his chicken and refusing to look her way. They were quiet after that; Sakura ate the _banchan_ while Minori finished the rest of the marinated chicken and unsalted bacon.

Otogakure had changed for the better, Sakura decided as she watched a family pass by, grinning and talking while the children raced a couple of steps in front. She remembered when she'd traveled to one of its bases, after defeating Sasori, in search for Sasuke with a flame of hope nipping at the back of her heart because maybe they would be able to bring him home. But that was years ago; she wasn't sixteen and naïve, anymore, and Sasuke was back. Just not back in the village—not in Konoha; he was back but he had his own village to take care of.

And under his ruling… Otogakure had prospered greatly.

The thought made her smile.

"Sensei…?"

Sakura blinked, turning towards Minori as he twirled his cup of tea around the table. "Hm?"

"Thank you."

Her brow furrowed. "For… What?"

He shrugged, refusing to look up. "For training me and not giving up on me. And… And for being my friend… And being here… With me."

Sakura's breath hitched in her throat as she let his words sink in. She watched as he fiddled with things, trying to entertain himself so not to feel as awkward as Sakura knew he felt. She would admit that, at the start, she hadn't known Minori was alone—parentless in the sense that they were never around, raised by some extended family and only getting glimpses of his mother and father as they came home to rest for a day or two at best before heading off on another mission. It would explain why he was so shy and introverted and it honestly made Sakura adore him all the more.

She poked his forehead, "Don't say things like that. You don't have to thank me, stupid."

He looked up at her, his mouth opened and ready to say something. But he was interrupted as his name was called out from the entrance of the barbecue shack. They both turned towards the source, watching as Sasuke's students walked in—well rested and in civilian clothes, no hitai-ate in sight.

"Ah, Sakura-san!" Ryuu approached her, his blue eyes bright as he grinned at her. "Thank you again for the healing balm! We didn't get to use it, though, since our mission was uneventful."

Sakura smiled back at him, eyes crinkled in her mirth. "No problem!"

He smiled at her for a second longer before turning his attention towards Minori. He extended his arm towards him, his hand closed into a fist. Minori didn't hesitate to bump his knuckles against his, a small boyish grin twitching his lips to one side.

"What's up, dude? I slept all afternoon so I'm wide awake. Yukio's in the same boat and I don't even know what the witch's doing here—"

"I am going to _throttle_ you!"

"Y'wanna hang out?"

Minori slowly turned his eyes towards Sakura, as if asking permission.

She stared back at him, her eyebrows raised and her chin resting on her hand. "Well don't let me stop you."

He grinned at her before sliding out of his seat, stumbling as Ryuu dropped an arm around his shoulder and led him away, Yukio on his other side.

Sakura watched them go with a grin on her lips and pride swelling her chest because her little idiot was growing up; six months, at maximum, and she was already a mother hen. She sobered up, a bit, as she felt someone's presence; her brow furrowed, watching as Eiko stared at her with a blank expression on her face, arms crossed and the shorter strands falling out of her ponytail shadowing her eyes.

They remained like that for a few seconds; Sakura blinked, curious as to why the girl was falling behind from catching up to the boys, yet not talking at all.

She was half ready to say something when the girl lifted her head, shaking her messy forelocks out of her eyes and giving Sakura a quick, yet genuine, smile—so fast it took Sakura a while to figure out if it was actually there.

* * *

Karin sat on her couch, curled up and in some sort of inexplicable pain.

She hadn't been feeling well for a few days, now. The cramps in her abdomen and her lower back went from being dull and quiet to acute and impossible to ignore. She felt that if she even tried to move she'd just set herself up for more pain; and Karin was a coward when it came to physical pain. Emotional, she could handle—thirsted for it, even.

She curled into herself more, stiffening as she felt the light bleeding that had started earlier that day; she knew she should really get that checked out, go to Sakura and ask questions. But Karin didn't… Really want to. She felt as if she was wilting—acute pain tearing her apart from the inside out and leaving her with no desire to do anything; she was breathing out of pure instinct. Finding answers and a solution to her new problem could wait. She was too tired, right then.

Karin closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep.

* * *

He walked into his office, flicking the lights on and pausing as his desk came into view.

It was… Clean, yes. But that was the problem. It was clean—as in, no one had been seated on it in days. And this implied that Karin had not been in to check on the paper work and any new missions that were in and _that_ meant, depending how long the clients had been waiting until now, that Otogakure was going to lose income.

The tip of Sasuke's ears burned with annoyance.

He walked around the desk, taking his seat on his chair as he gave out a low sigh. He grabbed a pen and the basket with scrolls waiting to be looked over. He'd slept throughout the afternoon, resting from the journey back home from the mission; he wasn't tired in the slightest.

Perhaps this was fine—it gave him something to do, at the very least. He turned his eye to the clock hanging over the doors of his office; it was nine-thirty at night, he could get through some things until midnight, at the very latest.

He could throttle Karin later.

* * *

Sometimes sleep was out of the question.

Sakura sat up from her bed after hours of tossing and turning. She was wide awake despite it being close to two in the morning; she wasn't surprised, though. It was all settled in the marrow of her bones, blending in as one with her veins that sometimes she forgot about that part of her—but she was a survivor of the most brutal war since the Warring States Era.

It's been years, she knew. But some things refused to leave.

Sometimes, sleep escaped her because behind her eyelids, in the darkness of her mind, she could see her Shishou and Kakashi-sensei; she could see Neji, still standing with the rest of the group, she could see Ino still smiling like she meant it because the world was at her hands and her father wasn't gone.

Sometimes, she saw how life had been before they all cracked and became jaded.

Sakura sighed, rubbing the heels of her palms against her eyes, standing up from the bed and grabbing a shirt to slide over her bound chest. She walked out of her room, poking her head into Minori's and watching the messy lump he made under his sheets. She had been asleep—or trying to, at least—when he arrived back home from his outing with Sasuke's students and… She was just a worrywart, that was all.

She grinned, closing the door and walking towards the front door.

If she was having one of her sleepless nights, she might as well use the time to wander Sasuke's village.

She didn't think she would ever get over the fact of what a beautiful village Otogakure has turned into, despite its haunting past. There were no signs of the hidden bases it once was, and she knew for a fact that the underground base had been destroyed before the rebuilding began.

But now everything was buildings and houses and shops; Sasuke's Otokage tower the tallest building, overseeing the entire village. There were barbecue shacks and ramen stands and dango stands and convenient stores and _houses_. There were people living in the little village that could—and did—shaping the very essence of second chances.

Sakura walked with her hands interlaced behind her back, green eyes wide as she took in the homes with people living inside, asleep.

She walked down the main street—Progressive Street, it was called—looking at the dark spaced where vendors would place their merchandise day after day, enough to leave a mark on the ground. She watched the stray onion peel or paper tumble and fly as the wind blew coldly, stray fireflies flying around as they slowly began to disappear as fall settled in.

At some point, she tried to envision Sasuke walking these streets, being greeted and smiled at with the adoration villagers would have for their kage. She could see him, all stiff on the back and shoulder, giving curt, jerky nods and waving awkwardly at the little kids that would yell his name out or run around his legs in a circle.

Sasuke was a fine leader; she didn't even have to witness it to know.

He had a strong sense of justice and a morality as breathtaking as Naruto's.

He was just… A lot darker than their blond teammate; he liked to hide behind that darkness in fear of what would happen if he showed his true side. But regardless of that, he was calm and patient, now, training three twelve years old and leading a village on his own. Her heart swelled at the thought of everything he'd surpassed to get to where he was.

"Amazing," she whispered, smiling and closing her eyes.

"Who's amazing?"

She whirled around, hands tightening into fists.

Sasuke stood there, under a lantern, his hair all dark and messy with his tousled forelocks and droopy spikes; he looked like his father did in the Academy's textbook in the Police Force section. Messy hair, neutral frown on his lips and eye always clouded with something.

He wore his standard shinobi uniform without his flak-jacket, ruffled and unkept. He looked… Tired only not.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, smiling.

"I could ask you the same thing," he said, raising a pointed eyebrow.

"I'm… I can't sleep so I chose to wander," she said, turning back and taking a few steps to prompt him to accompany her.

He fell into step with her, a few inches of space between them. Sakura could feel the material of his shirt against her bare arm with every step they took. She smiled, closing her eyes and relishing on the cool breeze against her skin and Sasuke's presence at her side.

"I was working on some scrolls," he said after they made a quick turn. "Karin didn't do anything."

"Mmm," Sakura hummed. "I haven't seen her as of late, either. I kept telling myself I'd go look for her but between teaching and Minori…"

"I see," he said, nodding his head.

They grew quiet, walking at a turtle's pace up and down the streets of the village. Sakura observed every little detail; from the style of the windows to the number of stares, drinking everything like a curious child. Next to her, Sasuke walked with his eye staring straight ahead, his forelocks swaying and entangling with his lashes with every step.

He looked older, Sakura observed, favoring him over the next few houses.

His jaw was strong and thin—not squared like Naruto's—with the telltale of stubbles shadowing his pale skin. His lips were thin, nose aristocratic, his eye dark and framed with thick lashes. He was still… so beautiful to look at. She laughed at the thought; he'd have an aneurism at being called beautiful.

But it was true, she decided.

"How was the mission?"

"Quiet," he replied, his voice low and smoky.

"How are they?"

"Inari's gotten tall," he drawled, rolling his head around as he cracked the kinks out of his neck. "Tazuna has retired from build bridging and Inari's taken his place."

"Neat," Sakura said, grinning.

"They asked about you," Sasuke said, turning towards her for a second, "And Naruto and Kakashi."

Sakura's expression sobered up, turning towards him, their eyes locking as she gave him a sad half-smile.

The rest of the walk was quiet, the silence only breaking when she'd ask a question about something or Sasuke would point something out and tell her a quick story. She'd laugh at some of them, throwing her head back and clasping her hands together, resting them against her chest. She'd poke at Sasuke's arm, elbow him and spare him a wink as she'd tease him, sometimes pressing her side against his to watch him struggle to keep his flustered expression at bay.

They walked like old friends, almost lovers, solace settling around them like a blanket to shield them from the early-morning-late-night's breeze. It wasn't long before he was escorting her back home, the night tucking in their interactions into one of its stars for safekeeping. The gap in between them had disappeared at some point in their outing and neither seemed to mind the way their elbows would bump into each other, the knobby bone at their wrist knocking against each other in the most comfortable way.

She turned towards the complex, walking up the stairs to their floor and knowing Sasuke would walk her right towards the door. She turned towards him, hands, behind her, grabbing onto the knob. The smile on her lips was soft and genuine—happy because Sasuke still turned her into that silly girl, light as a feather and ready to float away.

He stared at her, half-smirking at her stupid smile.

"Thanks for the tour," she teased, nose crinkling.

Sasuke rolled his eye, expression sobering up as he took slow, cautious steps towards her. It felt that ten days passed with every step he took closer towards her and Sakura felt her eyes grow wide, her heart hammering against her chest and her arms slackening. She swallowed, taking in every single one of his actions until he was right in front of her, towering over her and making her turn her head up to stare at him in the eye.

"I—"

Her breathing hitched as he dipped down, towards her, and everything in her system went haywire—she felt as if she'd been kicked out of her body and she stood to the side, watching the scene unfold and gaping at how she turned the doorknob behind her after whispering a quick and high pitched goodnight, throwing herself inside and closing the door behind her.

She didn't return to her traitorous body until she was leaning against the other side of the door, her heartbeat racing and her mind's eye repeating the image of Sasuke about to kiss her.

.

.

.


	11. ūndecim

**dedication: **to Nicole and to Rhea who spent an hour researching and talking this out with me. Also, to taempestous for drawing a chibi Sasuke!  
**summary: **Being a leader is akin to being a phoenix. You're always rising from the ashes.  
**notes: **Casual reminder that I do _not_ accept concrit. I don't _care_ what you find fitting, what you don't, what you can't imagine, what you can't believe, whatever that has to do with YOU. If you're going to write something in that review box and it begins with "I don't", "I can't", "I want", save it. I'm not writing for you; I'm writing for myself and it's ten bonus points that I get with each person that likes what I'm doing, too. If you don't like it, you don't like how I'm handling anything, you don't find it fit to your prissy standards, that's fine. Keep it steppin' and click out coz I sure as fuck am not changing anything for anyone other than myself. In short, _don't tell me what to write._

Other than that, thank you so, so, so much for your support with this story. It means a whole lot. Enjoy~

* * *

**「****11****」**

There was a whirring of shurikens. Sasuke blinked out of his stupor in time to lower himself into a crouch and effectively miss the cut they'd leave on either side of his cheeks. He shook his head, back flipping away from his current position just as Eiko dropped down with a harsh stomp.

Sasuke whirled around, adopting his battle stance just in time to watch Eiko's angry magenta hair fall back down around her as she, too, lowered herself into her stance.

They were in full training mode, splitting up into two groups to have a fair one-on-one spar; Yukio and Ryuu weren't too far from them, though they seemed to be having a lot more fun than they were. Ryuu's spikes were wild and messy as he moved with agility and Yukio had discarded his jacket to have a bit more freedom in his movements.

Meanwhile Eiko was giving her all and he… Was distracted.

Sasuke had the dignity to feel just a bit ashamed at not having his head in the sparring session, having lost it somewhere between last night's occurrence and a half-sleepless night.

Eiko must be furious.

He surveyed her, the way her lips curled in a sneer, eyes growing dark with annoyance and her hair falling over her shoulders, messy and a bit tangled. And the way she clenched her hands, ready to attack as she set them at chest-level, clearly spelt out just how enraged she was that Sasuke wasn't paying attention to their fight.

"Sensei," she growled, "are you belittling me?!"

Sasuke blinked his eye, "Of course not."

She stomped a foot, letting out an infuriated battle cry as she sprinted towards him.

And so began a melee of blind blows and kicks and dodging and catching and jumping away. Sasuke grabbed the shuriken she threw at him, throwing it right back and poofing out of view and reappearing right behind her. It was all like a muscle memory; he didn't have to think much on what he was doing, simply following Eiko's brash movements and dodging just about everything, save for the few punches and kicks she managed to land.

She was growing stronger, Sasuke observed. Wild child—temperamental and impatient but the girl pushed herself to and over her limits and it worked for her. Her determination reminded him of someone—and quite ironically it was someone that he wasn't really trying to think about because that someone… That someone was the very reason of his distraction.

Haruno Sakura had very well destroyed his perfect focus; weaved herself into his every thought just by a simple action that made him question and wonder about everything he remembered from his time in Konoha after the war and right before coming back to Oto.

Had… everything been onesided?

Had he been the only one that felt that weird, obnoxious spark that lit itself on its own, after picking up the bonds from where they had been dropped; rekindled friendships and unspoken apologies to one another—the three of them, Team Seven, forever broken but still standing strong.

And through that—through that reenactment of the old legend of the phoenix rising from its ashes, Sasuke and Sakura had found something. It was cliché, it was expected, it was long overdue and it was the truth. He and Sakura moved on from everything that should have destroyed what fragile bond they had once had and… And it warped into something different. Something stronger. Something that was finally _mutual_.

Or at least he had _thought_.

Had he been wrong?

Had every interaction they had shared from then up to this moment… Had it all—

His vision blurred for a second before going white. He stumbled back, groaning and shaking his head to release himself from his stupor. His jaw throbbed with a promise of a swell and a bruise and Sasuke quickly placed a hand over it as if the pressure would cause less pain rather than more.

He hissed just as Eiko threw her head back and laughed in victory, pumping a fist up and jumping in the air.

"I won—I _won_! I managed to land a good uppercut on Sasuke-sensei," she cheered, laughing and twirling around in place, her hair dancing behind her.

"Aw, that's a cheap shot," Ryuu commented, crossing his arms in front of his chest and pausing his and Yukio's spar. "Sensei's obviously distracted, Eiko, you're a _cheater_!"

She paused, mid cheer and sobered up, turning wild brown eyes towards her teammate, "No—no, no, _no_! I won; you can't take that from me!" She placed her hands on her hips, sparing a glance at Sasuke from over her shoulder. "Besides, sensei's been out of it since he _got here_, it's only fair!"

Sasuke sighed, moving his jaw and twitching at the sore. "It's alright; Eiko won this spar."

Ryuu made noises of protest while Yukio grinned, encouragingly, at Eiko who whooped and jumped in the air again. Meanwhile, Sasuke nursed his swollen jaw and decided he'd endure the pain rather than go look for a certain medic.

* * *

"Sensei was really out of it, huh?"

They zig-zagged through the streets, the sun merciless on their backs. It didn't even feel as if fall had settled in, yet; summer's sun still so insistent on rising and bringing a wave of heat to the village and only allowing the chilly breeze to blow and cool everyone down for a second or two before the warmness resumed.

Eiko walked with her hands on her hips, fingers drumming against her hipbones and her lips pursed in thought.

She wasn't thinking about anything in particular—just the fact that her mind still kept replaying the way Minori had healed her ankle the day before. Hadn't he done that, would she still have been able to walk today? To spar? To be able to beat Sasuke-sensei despite the fact that he was distracted since the very beginning?

And it wasn't just that.

It was the soothing feeling she'd felt. The soft hum and the even softer glow—mint green, gleaming around his hands like some sort of halo that promised something like comfort.

And the way he had _looked_.

The way his hair had fallen over his eyes, tangling with his long lashes and shifting with every blink he made. The way the longer strands fell over his shoulders, tickling at his soft jawline—the look in his _eyes_. The pure concentration, the way his lips pressed together…

It was so stupid.

Eiko kept trying to tell herself it was the stupidest set of thoughts she'd ever had, but her mind kept ignoring her and the logic and it kept reminding her of that experience. It was like that obnoxious expression of seeing the light; she'd seen the way med-nins could benefit to a team, to a dire situation.

And, to Eiko, having a sprained ankle—as obnoxiously and stupidly as she'd done it—was a dire situation, indeed.

"Something must be on his mind," Yukio finally answered, his blond hair bouncing with his steps. "Perhaps he's thinking of another mission for us?"

"Nah, you don't think of missions," Ryuu commentated, folding his arms behind his head. "You gotta receive a request or something. That's what the scrolls are for, right?"

"I think he just underestimated us," Eiko said, forcing herself out of her thoughts.

"And by 'us' you mean you, huh?"

"Exactly."

Ryuu turned to spare her a glance, his arms still crossed behind his head and his posture tilted back and slouched. He rolled his blue eyes at her, sucking at his teeth and shaking his head.

They walked in silence, after that, their destination unknown but they did tend to do this a lot. Just wandering the streets and looking around at things they already knew by memory. It was just… Better than going home and overtraining was out of the question to both Ryuu and Yukio. So what was left than to just wander around, finding some mischief to pick up, or a random place where they'd hang out and sneer and challenge each other.

Life was boring, Eiko decided with a disheartened sigh.

"Hey, look, there's Minori," Ryuu commented, his lips twisting into a crooked grin.

Eiko, much to her chagrin, perked up at this. She lifted her head, forelocks fanning her forehead from the abrupt movement. And sure enough, Minori walked towards them, his hair messier from the lack of his hitai-ate around his forehead and his clothes a bit rumpled and civilian-like.

She felt the back of her neck burn.

"What's up, Minori," Ryuu greeted, fist-bumping with him as they always did.

"I was actually looking for you guys," Minori said, moving his fist so he'd bump with Yukio's as well.

His eyes met hers for a second.

Eiko was sure she looked away first, though.

"Oh yeah?" Ryuu stood straighter, crossing his arms in front of his chest and tilting his head to the side. His spikes drooped at the action, falling over his eyes in a scruffy fashion. "Well, what's up, buddy?"

Minori ran a hand through his hair, pulling the messy shorter strands back and blowing them out of his face when they fell back into place. "I… Have no training today…"

They raised their eyebrow at him.

"So I was wondering…"

Ryuu lifted a hand up, waving it and trying to get him to get to the point.

"If you guys… Wanted to hang out…?"

Eiko shifted her weight to one leg, hip jutting out and hair falling over her shoulder in fuchsia waves. They stood under the sun and, despite just wearing her standard dark biker-shorts and blue tank-top, she felt as if she was being set on fire. It made the mesh-top she wore under her tank-top stick to her skin in the most uncomfortable way. She sighed, pressing her lips together and tilted her head back if just to get her hair out of her face.

She eyed Minori as he furrowed his brow, rubbing at his forearm in the most awkward way and she seriously couldn't believe that this was the same guy that could heal broken bones with a call of his chakra.

Ryuu snorted, shaking his head and throwing an arm over Minori's shoulders. To do so, though, he had to bend to the side a bit because Minori was shorter by a few inches. So he walked while leaning to the right, his arm over Minori's shoulders while the other one was tossed and flopped in the air, carelessly, as he said, "Don't be such a dork, dude, you don't have to ask us if we wanna hang out. You just come and find us and be assertive, yeah? Like, just say it—'dudes, let's hang out'. And we'll be like 'okay, wha'cha wanna do'. And sometimes we won't know what exactly we're gonna be up to, but we'll find something. I mean, that's what friends do, right?"

Eiko rolled her eyes as she trailed them.

"…Yeah…" Minori replied, uncertain.

"Cool, and we're friends. So it's all peachy cool."

Sighing, Eiko sped up so she was walking in front. She flipped her hair, turning to look at the three boys over her shoulder. "You all bore me with your senseless chit-chat. C'mon, if you slowpokes hurry up, we can scare off the pervs tryna peek into the ladies' bath-house."

They stared at her but her eyes locked with Minori's, again, and she was quick to look away. But not before making sure he caught her haughty smirk.

* * *

He sighed for the umpteenth time, leaning back in his chair and pinching the bridge of his nose as if that would summon some patience for him. Or was it even patience what he was looking for? He was annoyed, yes, but more than anything he was just antsy to catch up and set some balance onto his documentation system.

Sasuke was messy—neater than some people, but he was rather _messy_. But he prided himself in adapting a system for his document signing, his mission debriefing, his mission request reading, his summoning the perfect team for the right mission—everything.

Kages weren't just to watch over their village and go on political summits for its benefit. They had to make a good balance for the income coming in to the village by clients, set up the teams, and make time to debrief, show face to the village to know they are around… There was more to being a Kage then just holding the title of Strongest Shinobi in the Village.

And while Karin didn't mess his system up _entirely_, she did manage to set him a bit off; lose some clients, send a team to a mission that wouldn't work with it because the team he'd originally wanted was already off on another mission.

Sasuke sighed, again.

In fact, he should go and find her and give her a piece of his mind.

Sasuke and Karin's friendship was nothing if not angry and aggressive; they screamed and sneered at each other, hostility at its finest. And Karin needed to get whacked a couple of times for going back on her word when he didn't go back on his. He ran into that damn Suigetsu and he didn't utter a single word about her pregnancy and here she was, inside the village, not doing as he had requested in favor of doing what?

Glaring and annoyed, he shrugged his haori off and left his office through the balcony.

This time, the first placed he searched was her office. He crouched on the branch by her window, peering inside and finding the room bare and untouched with a few manila folders on top of her desk. But everything was neat and clean with no sign of her ever stepping foot into it in days.

Which made him wonder where the hell she could have gone.

He walked through the streets, his steps hurried and his mind distracted as he half-greeted the villagers and placed a hand, gently, on top of the heads of the children that would run towards him and pull at his flak-jacket to get his attention. He didn't find her, though, and the last place left for him to search was her apartment.

Sighing, he headed towards that direction.

"Sasuke-sama, Sasuke-sama!"

He paused, briefly, blinking his eye and looking down at a trio of little kids looking up at him with wide, curious eyes.

"Why's you' face swollen?"

Sasuke blanched for a second before he remembered that he had spared with his team, earlier that day, and because of his distraction he had warranted a punch from Eiko.

"Sparring," he answered, crouching down to their level. "Do you guys spar?"

They shook their heads, the two little girls bashfully hiding behind the boy.

"My daddy says that the kage is th' st'ongest ninja in the village!"

"I suppose he's right," Sasuke answered, nodding his head.

"I'm gonna be the st'ongest ninja evuh!" The little boy jabbed his thumb to his chest and gave him a missing-teeth smile.

Sasuke smirked, standing back to his full height and patting the boy's head. "I'm sure you will, kid."

"I'm gonna beat you!"

At this, Sasuke looked down at him, his smirk twisting into a small grin. "I'll hold you to that."

With that, he continued on his search for his annoying stand-in Otokage.

Karin's apartment wasn't too far from the Otokage Tower; had he gone there to search first, he would have made it in a matter of two minutes. But he was on the other side of the village so his walk was long and annoying. By the time he arrived to her front door, he was more than a little irritated.

He didn't knock because Karin never really paid attention to the knocking and he'd be reduced to knocking all day until he'd give up, if he went that route.

The door opened with ease as he turned the knob and stepped into the quiet apartment. Karin was way neater than he was; her walls held scrolls with poems scrawled on them in neat calligraphy and a few candid pictures from over the years, including one of herself and Naruto, of herself and the girls from Konoha and another of Taka during their earlier days taken by some nameless civilian from a village they'd gone to.

Sasuke looked around and nearly froze as he watched Karin stand at the entrance of her kitchen, holding onto her mid-section in what could only be inexplicable pain, her mouth open in silent screams and blood trailing down her legs. She gasped, knees giving out on her; she collapsed to the ground, her screams finally giving out. She curled into herself, tears streaming down her cheeks as she withered in utmost pain.

He took a step closer, his eye shifting from the blood flowing down her legs and to her pained face and then back before he rushed to her side, kneeling down and trying to figure out what to do. He moved her hair out of her face, pulling his hand back as he felt the fever burning her forehead.

"Shit," he hissed, picking her up and off the ground and pulling her close as he stood up.

"She's dead," she sobbed into his chest before pulling away. Her expression crumpled as she cried and screamed, tears still falling down her cheeks. "She's dead, Sasuke, she's _dead_! My baby is _dead_!"

Sasuke's blood froze as she screamed those words, one hand holding onto his shoulder, nails digging into his skin even through the material of his shirt, the other one wrapped protectively around herself. The blood splattered onto the ground with sickening, yet soft, splat-splat-splat and Sasuke… Sasuke didn't know what to do.

But Karin's crying and her screaming and how… Useless and destroyed she looked—how she _sounded_—was mind-jarring. All he could think of was finding one person.

"She's dead," she sobbed in what could only be hysteria, holding onto him like her life support. "She's dead!"

Sasuke ran.

* * *

The door was knocked open just as she finished up mixing an antidote she was going to show the class next. She jolted up in her seat, humming cut short as she dropped her utensils onto the small coffee table and looked up with wide green eyes. Her first instinct was to grab the kunai hidden in the pillow behind her. Her second instinct was to grab the poison she was making an antidote for, sitting not too far from her small little station, and prepare to use it.

But everything was halted as her eyes landed on Sasuke.

It took her focus for a bit and all Sakura could do was tense her shoulders and heighten her senses.

That was before she realized, a mere second later, who he was holding in his arms, who was crying in panic, who was _bleeding_. And it was all it took to get her to jolt out of her seat, gears switching to top notch medic as she practically sprinted to Sasuke's side, surveying Karin with clinical eyes.

There was a lot of blood.

This… This was not good.

"Shit," she whispered, already knowing what was going to happen. "Okay… Okay, Sasuke, take her to the spare room and set her down gently. I'll handle the rest."

Her eyes locked with his single one for a brief moment before he stalked towards the room. Sakura took a deep breath in, looked up towards the ceiling and exhaled as she prepared to go through something she didn't think she would ever want to go through. Not with someone she held dear.

She searched and grabbed for anything and everything she was going to need, including cloths and gauze and cotton balls before she walked towards the room.

* * *

A woman just _knows_ when she's pregnant. She can get confused, doubt herself, question her judgment and maybe even deny it; but somewhere, in her vast mind, she just _knows_. It came in the way her entire body changed, what it rejected, what it craved, what it drank up like the fruit of life—it was a matter of paying close attention, feeling the tightness in your womb as something slowly begins to manifest there, grow and grow as a being _formed_ in there—a new _life_.

Karin found out by the fact that her shorts didn't fit anymore, that she suddenly hated anything raw and that training made her nauseous in the most unpleasant way—not that being nauseous could be pleasant, anyway.

She had been delusional, delirious, even in outright denial because conceiving meant she held something, inside her, that was hers and Suigetsu's. It meant that what was going on between them was real in the fakest kind of way—an irony, a contradiction, an oxymoron.

And that's all they were.

An oxymoron.

They were just two unstable people doing things with each other for a few nights before they parted and didn't see each other for days, weeks, _months_. They were violent, hostile, stubborn, angry and they disliked each other on most days.

But she also felt like Suigetsu could mean so much more to her.

And she realized he _did_ and she _hated_ the idea—the fact that she would somehow, someway, someday depend on him and that at some point his feelings towards her—nonexistent, existent, blossoming or not—would be the end of her. It drove her crazy because Karin was a survivalist and falling into the pits of love towards someone like Hōzuki Suigetsu was tragic at best.

And that all wound up into a perfect circle as she figured a child did not deserve any of that, did not deserve parents like them, did _not_ deserve a frigid mother and a murderer for a father.

Yet she did nothing to prevent it from growing inside her.

Yet she sometimes found herself unconsciously placing a soft hand on her womb, yet she found herself eating less and less and worrying even _less _about herself until she destroyed herself.

And now, as she found herself lying on a cold bed, bleeding out everything her body decided it didn't need—what could have been her _child_—and with Sakura hovering above her, working on keeping her stable so nothing could go wrong from this point onwards… Karin realized she'd wanted it.

She had been so sure she didn't. She had been so sure this child was going to be another fuck-up shinobi to add to the list. Resentful and neglected.

But no… Now Karin wanted her—she would have been a girl, the voice inside her mind told her—Karin wanted her. She wanted her to grow, she wanted to hold her in her arms, stare at her violet eyes and watch her _grow up _to be someone. She wanted her for herself—this little girl that died—she would have been Karin's and only Karin's.

But she's gone.

She's dead.

And Karin cried.

* * *

Sakura closed the door behind her with a soft click.

Karin was asleep on the other side; no traces of the thick streams of blood in between her legs because Sakura had cleaned them off, had taken her clothes off and changed her—helped her because Karin needed any and every support she could get, even if she would deny it. And Sakura knew Karin would deny it, when it all settled in.

She sighed, closing her eyes and sliding the gloves off her hands.

She stood there, for a while, breathing in and out and pondering about the funny thing called life—not for the first time, as she was a kunoichi and she'd faced death more than once. How it was there for a second and then it was gone, like pulling the rug from under someone's feet, watching them fall to the ground and never standing back up.

It was an awful, awful thing and death made Sakura think of scorch marks on the skin, where the cells burnt and died and in between stood fresh flesh—pink and raw and _agonizing_.

She walked up the hall, into the living room where Sasuke sat, staring at something but not actually staring at anything at all. His shoulders were tense, back rigid and Sakura couldn't even depict the disturbance of his breathing. She bit her lip, walking into the kitchen to wash her hands and maybe even her face—maybe she should shower.

Maybe she should shower.

"How is she?"

She looked over her shoulder and watched as Sasuke stood at the entrance of the kitchen. He had discarded his flak jacket, rolling the sleeves of his black shirt up to his elbows, his skin stained some sort of pink from the blood that the material of his shirt had absorbed. He looked as shaken as someone like Sasuke would look, hair messy and shadows under his eyes that made him look scruffy.

Sakura sighed, again. "She miscarried."

He stared at her.

"So… She did die," he murmured, more to himself than to her.

"What?"

Sasuke looked up at her, "Karin called it a 'she'. She said she died."

She'd subconsciously given it a gender. She grew attached, and it happened too late.

Sakura's heart constricted in that way that always made her doubt herself in this field; it was too big, too feely, too connected with everyone and their emotions. It was hard—it was so hard and it hurt so much.

"Jeez," she whispered, turning to face him fully, leaning against her counter and hugging herself.

"Will she be alright?"

"She'll… Physically she'll be fine in a week or two," she replied, suddenly feeling as she couldn't look him in the eye. "Emotionally she'll be unstable for a while. Karin can be strong and cold but…" She bit her lip, lifting her head up to look at him from under her lashes. "A mother is a mother."

He nodded, mechanically, looking downwards.

"She chose to go through natural miscarriage," she commented, pulling away from the counter and walking out the kitchen, making sure not a single inch of her body touched him.

Sasuke followed after her, a few steps behind. "What is that?"

"It means that she chose to let her body clean itself as oppose to me doing it," she sat down on the couch, running her damp hand through her hair. "This way, she will still go through 'labor'; she'll still have contractions—everything that happens in a normal labor process. Her body will throw out the placenta, the fetus and blood. There's still going to be a lot of blood."

He scratched at his jaw. Sakura vaguely noticed the stubbles that were still there.

"Isn't that… Harder…? Sadistic, even?"

"It… Is, yes. But it's also closure." She leaned back in her seat, looking up at the ceiling. "I'll check on her regularly—it was something I _should_ have done upon arriving."

"Thank you."

Sakura sat up, turning to face him and blinking her forelocks out of her eyes. He was staring at her, too, his expression as impassive as it had always been. She furrowed her brow, biting the inside of her cheek as she tried to figure out what he could have possibly be thanking her for. "For what?"

Those two words weren't something taken lightly… Not when it was between them.

"For… Helping her," he said. "Karin isn't… As capable of taking care of herself as she likes to lead on."

Sakura swallowed, her fingers clenching the material of her shorts. "And you are?"

"Of course not."

There was silence between them and Sakura almost—_almost_—succumbed herself to thoughts of the night before. Of the way he had leaned towards her, of the way she had panicked and fled. She had convinced herself she had taken the entire situation wrong, blew it out of proportion by thinking he was going to kiss her.

They had been something, six years ago.

They could have been something, six years ago.

Close friends, almost lovers.

That's where they had always stood. He'd pay for their meal—meals with just him and her—and walk her home, they'd train together, share these meaningful looks, haughty smirks and soft smiles. They had been Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura, gone through hell and back in different ways but the outcome had been the same. They had made it back and while everything with the Uchihas—with him—had still been wobbly and edgy and foggy with the others and the village, to her he had still been Sasuke.

And he still was.

Her forever boy.

Her close friend, her almost lover.

And then he had left, again. And then he had been nominated—despite the small, barely existent distrust—as the Otokage of the newly rebuilt and established Otogakure.

And then they hadn't seen each other much.

So where they did stand?

What were they?

Sakura's breathing hitched at the thought, her heart doing funny things as she realized that it was him and her in that room, half recovering from witnessing something so natural yet not. She turned towards him, watched him watch her and suddenly it was last night all over again but this time she had no time to flee—no _room_ to flee.

And Sasuke was there—powerful, intimidating, intoxicating, everything… Absolutely everything. He moved towards her and Sakura shifted, leaning back and a bit away, watching him like a prey watched their predator; he caged her in between his arms and in between his body and the couch and Sakura's lips parted, eyes wide.

"Sasuke…?"

And when he stole the kiss she had denied him the night before it was chaste and soft, his lips pressed against hers—hesitant. She breathed him in just as he did, her brow furrowed, her hands twitching on her lap. He pulled away a second later and she reached up and slapped him.

It was pure instinct, her hand reaching up and colliding with his cheek—not even strong enough to have him face away. It was soft, the smack barely audible.

And it was unnoticed as she reached up, her hands entangling in his hair as she kissed him back. It was as soft and as hesitant as his; testing the waters before she allowed her tongue to peek out, tracing his lower lip. It became more fervent, more demanding after that. Years of could have, would have, should haves pouring into a single moment.

Pulling away, his lower lip in between her teeth, Sakura swore she saw stars.

She pressed her forehead against his, eyes closed and the fingers of one of her hands ghosting over her lips, trying to figure out if that had actually happened. And when it settled into her bones she laughed, soft and breathy and unbelievably ridiculous.

Sasuke smirked at her even as she placed feather-like kisses against his lips, her hands entangled in his hair.

.

.

.


	12. duodēcim

**dedication: **to Rhea because Rhea and Paige because Paige. And also Rxs because it's her birthday today. I'll try to get your gift fic out on friday, love.  
**summary: **Being a leader is akin to being a phoenix. You're always rising from the ashes.  
**notes: **So I kind of failed at SasuSaku Month coz I was only able to do two out of nine of my prompts. I ended up with a weird writer's block. But anyway, I've really missed this fic so much and sdhfjsdfkdfg. While I was away from it, I received another fanart by Lilithkiss and OMG it's so beautiful! Check it out and enjoy this chapter!

(also, after last chapter I'm pretty sure it was obvious I was going to concentrate on Karin. Please don't tell me you dislike it or that you wanted more SasuSaku, because like I've said, I don't really care. Thank you)

Also! I cut this chapter here because it was getting super long. It'll be continued in the next one *3*

* * *

**「****12****」**

"But where's everyone gone to?"

They all lazed around the training grounds, too hot to even bother with going through a round of basic taijutsu. It would seem the season was spitting out the last of the scorching hot weather before the inevitable coolness began to settle in; Minori wished he would have thought about that before leaving the apartment without his hitai-ate to keep his hair back from sticking to his face. He needed a haircut.

Ryuu was sprawled on the grassy ground, trying to hide from the sun but failing; he settled to just lying there, like an iguana, and soaking up the persistent sunrays. "I mean… The last time I saw Sasuke-sensei was for training and that was _two_ days ago_."_

"No one has time for you," Eiko drawled, looking up from all the arsenal scattered around her. She picked up a kunai and inspected it; eyes squinted as she tried to figure out how much sharpening it needed.

"Oh, _please_. You're probably pissed coz Sasuke-sensei isn't paying any attention to your training," Ryuu shot, moving one of his hands from behind his head so he could wave it at her in a mocking fashion.

Minori's eyes turned towards Eiko as she flipped her pony-tail over her shoulder. Much like him, the rest of Team Sasuke were dressed in civilian clothes, lacking their hitai-ate and looking like ordinary thirteen year olds. Eiko liked to tie her hair up when she wore civilian attire; a messy pony-tail halfway up her pretty head, shorter strands falling to frame her face and block her forehead from the sun.

He shook his head and looked away when he realized he was staring.

"I don't care if he pays attention or not!" she shot back, taking her anger out on her kunai, the sound of its edge against the whetstone acute and disturbing. "I can train myself, thank you."

"Yeah, _okay_."

Minori leaned towards Yukio who sat the closest to him, his arms supporting his weight as he leaned back. Out of the four, Yukio was the quietest, always trailing in the back and observing, with his dark brown eyes and his blond hair tied back at the base of his neck. Ryuu's friendliness got Minori out of his shell but it was Yukio's quiet company that made him comfortable.

"Aren't you going to stop them?"

Yukio's dark eyes turned towards him, his lips pursed and his forelocks curtaining half of his face. "No, they're fine."

Minori turned back towards Ryuu as he lay in the middle of the grounds, legs spread open and his arms crossed behind his head as a makeshift pillow. Eiko continued to sharpen her weapons, shifting around in her seat in the shade of one of the trees. It was quiet for a bit, not counting the muttering Minori was sure he could hear Eiko was making under her breath.

"No, but seriously, what's going on?" Ryuu asked after about ten minutes of silence.

Eiko gave out a loud sigh, dropping her whetstone and her kunai as she turned to glare at him. "You are really annoying—shut up!"

"Well, you can always go home! Jeez."

"Or you can just _shut up_!"

Minori heard Yukio sigh, next to him.

"Please stop," he said placidly, looking up as a flock of birds flew out from the trees.

Except Ryuu and Eiko continued to argue, throwing insults back and forth and completely disregarding Yukio's interjection. Minori turned his head from Ryuu to Eiko to tilting his head to spare Yukio a glance and then back to Ryuu and Eiko; it was… Amusing, he would like to say. Kind of terrifying, but amusing nonetheless.

"I _said_," Yukio sneered, sitting up and glaring at his teammates. "_Please stop_!"

They all went silent, with Ryuu shifting his legs and Eiko switching to another kunai. Yukio glared at them for a second longer before he leaned back, again, and continued to soak up the sun and observe the scenery.

Minori continued to play with the blades of grass, rubbing his fingers together to rid them of the sticky feeling the blades would leave behind before continuing to play with them again. He looked back at them, at Ryuu getting his tan and Eiko sharpening her tools and Yukio just drifting off. He cleared his throat, "I haven't seen Sakura-sensei, either. She's still not in when I get to bed and she's gone when I wake up… So… Yeah…"

"It's probably about the medical class," Yukio commented, lightly.

Minori turned towards Eiko, watching as she watched Yukio with an annoyed expression on her face before she shifted her attention towards him, her eyes locked with his.

* * *

Sakura said she should walk around a lot to get the natural miscarriage going—make it happen faster instead of waiting through overly prolonged weeks. It'd be a faster way to move on, get closer, let it go, she said. She said it all in that gentle yet firm voice of hers, her green eyes steely and her lips in a neutral frown. She'd placed her hand over hers, rubbed her arms to cause a warm friction and even rubbed soothing circles on her back.

But Karin hadn't moved from her bed since she dropped herself onto it with a dead thud, two days prior. She knew Sakura knew and she knew Sasuke knew, as well. But Karin didn't even care, couldn't even find it within her to care about anything else other than lying there, in the dark, curling into herself and staring at the shadows filling her room.

She should walk, she knew. She should get it over, she knew. She should find her closure, she knew.

But, currently, Karin just didn't _care_.

She wanted to be left alone—get swallowed up by the darkness of her room. She wanted to scream at Sakura and Sasuke when they'd come in and check on her; she wanted to tell them she wanted to be left alone and that she _hates_ absolutely everything and that there was a black hole in her chest, sucking everything out and leaving her dry and empty. But she didn't even have the strength to scream. All she could do was curl further into herself when Sasuke sat at the edge of her bed—not saying anything because Sasuke never said a thing, but simply sitting there his eye staring at the wall and his presence comforting.

But maybe that's why she rejected the company.

Maybe that was the reason why she wanted to be left alone and forgotten.

She didn't want the comfort.

She didn't want the pity.

And Karin was such a sarcastic and negative person, she couldn't help but warp the good intentions into something as horrible as pity. She didn't _want_ anyone's pity; she had enough of it from herself. She had enough self-loathing as it was.

But she never said a thing, even as Sasuke stood in the space between her bed and the wall, staring down at her. What day was it? What time was it? Did she even _care_?

No, she didn't.

"Karin." His voice was gruff and almost annoyed. Like he was angry or something and what right did he have to be angry? Angry at _what_? Was _he_ the one that miscarried? Was _he_ the one that basically killed his own child? No, no he wasn't. Had she been in any other condition, Karin would have snarled at him.

"Get up," he went on, turning around and yanking the curtains away from each other to allow sunlight to lighten the room.

Instinctively, Karin squinted her eyes to block out as much light as she could. Her eyes watered and she very much thought it was because of the intrusion of such brightness after going days in darkness, as well because she just… Cried a lot and at random times. She didn't even call forth the tears because she was still so emotionally numb, it was like her body was mourning on its own.

"You have to eat," Sasuke drawled, walking over towards her and standing over her.

She looked up at him but didn't say a single thing.

"I'm serious," he sighed, "It's been two days already, Karin. Get up and get some food in your system."

When she didn't respond, He snatched at her forearm and yanked her up. She needed it, Karin knew; Karin was a practical person—or at least she _normally_ was—and knew Sasuke was being like this because she _needed_ it. If he was a heartless asshole like she normally liked to call him, he would have done this on his first visit.

But Karin was normally a practical person and she knew she was doing more harm to herself than she already did. And she knew she just couldn't really care, at the moment, and Sasuke was one of the few that—and she knew he did—care enough for both himself and her. And maybe she needed this kick, this aggression, this invasion.

Maybe she needed to get it over with, find that closure Sakura talked about.

Maybe Karin was just scared.

"Come on," Sasuke said, pulling her out of the bed and grabbing her by both her forearms, steadying her on her feet. "I even brought you food—_okonomiyaki_, like you like it."

She wasn't hungry.

Her stomach gurgled in protest.

Karin bowed her head, allowing Sasuke to drag her out of the room and towards the kitchen. She hated feeling like this, feeling like a burden, feeling useless, like she couldn't even take care of herself even if she very well _knew _she could. This entire experience was so foreign to her, drove her a bit insane, somewhere in the back of her mind.

Sasuke took her to her couch, pushing her back with one finger and looking down at her as she fell back in a sitting position. He disappeared and reappeared with her meal, setting it down in front of her and crossing his arms in front of his chest. Karin knew there were silent tears streaming down her cheeks, but she tried to ignore it as she reached over and grabbed at her chopsticks. They were shaky in her hold and it was only then when she realized just how weak she actually was.

Satisfied once she began to take her first bites, Sasuke sank on the space next to her, his legs spread and his knees hitting the edge of the coffee table.

There was a relatively calm silence as Karin continued to nourish herself, feeling faint and nauseous and good all at once. She looked down at her meal, admiring at how much larger it looked than a regular sized _okonomiyaki, _as if Sasuke had asked for it special and as Otokage, was granted such a wish. It had cabbage, green onions, thinly sliced pork belly, assorted veggies and cheese and topped with _okonomiyaki_ sauce. It really was exactly how she liked it.

"It was my fault," she whispered hoarsely, barely able to recognize her own voice.

Sasuke looked towards her, his eye on her and his brow furrowed. "What?"

"My baby dying," she breathed out. "It was my fault."

"Don't be stupid," he said, shaking his head. "Things happen; not every pregnancy is successful."

"It was my fault," she repeated, softer, continuing to eat her meal.

* * *

"So what's Konoha like?"

Eiko rolled her eyes as they walked down the streets, heading towards Minori's apartment. It was getting dark and they all decided to have some of Minori's famous riceballs before heading to their individual homes. As per usual, she walked in front of the three idiots, leading the way and thankfully only catching half of their dumb conversations.

But Ryuu just basically asked Minori about where he lived and… And Eiko was curious, too, as annoying as it was.

So she discreetly slowed her stride until she wove her way in between them, her eyes on the road and pretending Ryuu wasn't glaring at her in that ugly way of his.

Minori looked up towards the sky, a thoughtful look on his face. There was this part of his messy hair that curled outwardly, as if he's always running his hands through the strands and causing them to awkwardly stick out like that and it made Eiko want to smooth it out because it was _weird_ how it stuck out like that. Also his forelocks—the way they fell over his eyes and shifted every time he blinked… He was just a really scruffy boy and it was distracting.

"I don't know, I guess I've always just seen it as home." He shrugged a shoulder. "Like, most of the village is brand new since it had been basically wiped out during an attack. I remember it, actually, the attack. I remember my parents were actually in the village for it and they evacuated me and a lot of the villagers." He shook his head, turning to look towards them with his annoying dark eyes. "Anyway, it's a lot like this village, really. And, I don't know, it's pretty notorious since the Legendary Sannin originated from the village and even now, their successors are from there, too. And everyone knows they had a lot to do with the victory of the Fourth War… so…"

"Oh yeah," Ryuu said, snapping his fingers. "Sasuke-sensei's part of that, huh?"

"So is Sakura-sensei," Minori said, nodding.

"And your Hokage, as well, yeah?"

Minori nodded.

In the Academy, Eiko learned that the title Sannin was given to three shinobi—students of the Konoha's Sandaime—by Hanzō of Amegakure. These three were Tsunade—the late Godaime—as well as Jiraiya and Orochimaru himself. They each had their own special abilities with Tsunade being the best medic in the shinobi world, Jiraiya being a sage and Orochimaru knowing all kinds of—forbidden—jutsus. And even then, they had their own special summoning; a slug for Tsunade, a toad for Jiraiya and a snake for Orochimaru. As such, she also learned, they each took a student under their wing—Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, respectively.

It all made a lot of sense.

It was like one of those… Perfect circles or whatever.

They succeeded their mentors in the war and dubbed as the new Sannin by the Edo Tensei revived previous Hokages.

Eiko swallowed back scoff, crossing her arms in front of her chest as they turned into the building where Minori's apartment was in.

"Naruto-sama really likes ramen," Minori commented as he led them into the house. "And he never does his paperwork. My other sensei sometimes had to go and help him before Sakura-sensei found out."

"Other sensei?" Yukio asked.

"Before Sakura-sensei took me in, I was part of a team, too. My sensei, then, was Hinata of the Hyuuga clan." He shrugged a shoulder, again, running a hand through his hair and walking towards the kitchen. "I didn't really work well with my teammates and then Sakura-sensei kind of noticed me and my chakra control and offered to teach me medical ninjutsu."

"Fascinating," Eiko drawled, dropping herself on the couch and crossing a leg over the other.

It was quiet, for a bit, as Minori moved around in the kitchen, finding and preparing everything so they could begin to cook their meal. Eiko looked around the apartment—it still looked as empty and plain as it did since the first time she looked inside and that was weeks ago, already. The walls were bare and the kitchen, from what she could see from her sitting position, was lacking a lot of things and it just didn't look as if someone lived in it.

Maybe it was because it was a temporary place; somewhere where they'd stay for a few months and then go back home. It made perfect sense, really, but living in such a plain place was nerve-wracking even for Eiko. She quietly thought back to her own home and the plants her mother liked to keep around because it brought life and character to the place and always asked her to water them before heading out.

"So what's the diamond on your sensei's forehead supposed to be?" Ryuu questioned, sprawled on the other side of the couch, messily.

Eiko sneered at him and his existence.

Minori appeared from the kitchen, his hair tied back—or his attempts to tie it back, but most of the strands fell right out of the tie—and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. "The Yin Seal? It's…"

"Also known as the _Byakugō, _it's a seal developed by Konoha's late Godaime, Lady Tsunade. It's presumed to be the peak of chakra control because it requires the user to store chakra for an extended period of time onto a specific point of the body, normally to be the forehead. Once completed, the marking will appear and the user will be able to perform jutsus without wasting stamina or chakra." Eiko raised her eyebrow, sizing up her teammate with a smirk. "C'mon, Ryuu. Didn't you pay attention in class? And here Sasuke-sensei says _you're_ the genius."

Ryuu glowered at her.

"Y-yeah," Minori breathed out, cutting short what would have been a new argument between the two. His eyes were on her, Eiko noticed as she turned towards him as he said, "What she said."

Eiko's smirk widened at that, turning back towards Ryuu and nudging her chin in a mocking fashion.

The door opened, then, and all four paused any and all their actions as they watched Sakura walk in, her hair loose from her hitai-ate and looking a bit tired. She halted, mid-shrugging her red haori off, and stared at them with a surprised expression before a smile cracked at her lips.

"Hey, shrimp! You didn't tell me you were going to have visitors."

Eiko turned towards Minori, watching as he crossed his arms in front of his chest, looking every bit awkward. "Sensei, I haven't seen you in days."

"Minor setbacks," Sakura waved, kicking off her boots and heading towards one of the rooms.

"We're cooking riceballs," Minori called out, shifting back and leaning against the counter.

"Ooh! Okay, can I get some with tomatoes in them?"

It was quiet for a moment before they heard the shower start; Minori sighed, walking back towards the kitchen and waving them over. Eiko watched as Yukio stood and Ryuu followed, she exhaled slowly, trailing after them and pushing her sleeves up her forearms.

Riceballs were so basic, she knew. Everyone knew how to make riceballs; her favorite were the ones stuffed with cheese, but those were so rare to find and her mother only made them when Eiko was bugged her enough. Maybe there was cheese in the fridge and she could make her cheese stuffed riceballs tonight. It'd be the perfect dinner for an overall boring day.

Sakura reappeared halfway through the riceball making; they were making enough so that someone like Ryuu and his bottomless pit of a stomach could be satisfied and it annoyed Eiko that they had to even consider him and his stupid insatiable hunger instead of having him conform with what they had.

She didn't say anything, though, because Yukio would then do that thing where he'd yell and glared at them with his dark eyes, lips curled back. And it wasn't that Eiko was scared of him or anything, so much that she didn't want to go through that in front of Sakura.

"So," she went, squeezing herself in between Minori and Ryuu. "How's it been?"

"Where have _you_ been?"

Sakura sighed, grabbing some of the rice and stuffing tomatoes in the middle. She looked up at them with her yellow-green eyes, lips in a straight line and damp hair shadowing half of her face. "Karin lost her baby."

They stared at her.

"When you lose a baby, your body does some things; there's a lot of blood involved—"

"Oh _gross_, Sakura-san!"

"And," she went on, half-smirking, "sometimes the woman has to be monitored. Karin chose to allow her body to throw out everything it doesn't need in a natural fashion rather than having me coax her body to do it in a one-two-three method. So I've been going to her, a lot, to check up on her. Miscarriages are hard, guys, and it hurts. Karin's going through a lot, right now, so I have to be there for her."

Eiko liked Karin.

She was rude to Sasuke-sensei and that was always cool, in her book. And she looked so strong and she was so _pretty_; her kid would have been beautiful. It was… Sad, to find out about something like that. It would explain why her sensei was missing, though. Karin was a very close friend of his; he was probably monitoring her just as Sakura was.

Eiko sighed, setting her cheese-stuffed riceball on her plate.

"But just because I haven't been around doesn't pardon you from continuing your training!" Sakura eyed them, an eyebrow raised. "Minori, we're done with the healing part of your training. We're going to concentrate on the combat part; by the end of this week I expect you to be able to build up and release your chakra with precise timing without any conscious effort."

"Yes, sensei," Minori replied, nodding his head.

"I'll give you a demonstration tomorrow, before I head to class. I expect you up early."

"Okay."

Sakura's eyed turned towards them, her stern expression relaxing as she smiled at them. "I'm sure you guys are used to Sasuke disappearing, huh? What with being Otokage and all."

"Yes," Ryuu answered for them, flashing her one of his lopsided grins. "You don't need to worry, Sakura-san, our training goes on even if Sasuke-sensei isn't around."

After that, they ate their meals in a relatively calm silence with a short conversation bubbling up every now and then. Eiko sat in between her teammates, observing the way Minori and Sakura interacted, the way she talked to him with confidence—like she saw him as an equal even if he was a mere genin and under her tutelage. Sasuke didn't treat them bad and he didn't disrespect them at all, but it was entirely different to watch a sensei interact with their student, instead of being the student interacting with her sensei.

And Sakura was very pretty, too. Her hair was at least five shades lighter than Eiko's and it was short, the spiked ends barely grazing the top of her shoulders. And her eyes were very pretty, too, and the way they were so expressive—all the emotion they reflected by having a mere conversation with Minori.

This was the new Slug Sannin, Eiko told herself. She was short and almost—_almost_—looked too frail for the title. But this was the woman that played the role of a god with her perfect chakra control and her medical ninjutsu.

Eiko was fascinated.

* * *

Karin stood in the middle of her small living room dressed in shorts and one of the t-shirts Naruto left behind in one of his visits. She swayed in her stance because she still wasn't all back out of the dark place in her mind and there was a part of her that thought she never really would.

Losing… What happened to her was like losing part of herself and no matter how much pep-talk and how much self-will there was involved, there was going to be a part of her that would forever be missing. Life would eventually go on and she would eventually return to her duties, somewhere along the road she would be pregnant again but it won't ever change the fact that her first child died inside her.

And that, in a way, was motivational.

Enough to get her to agree with herself to begin the process; to center herself, find her bearings again and get as good of a grip on them as she could so she could get started, go back to being—or feigning to be—that headstrong, stubborn spitfire of a woman-girl she was.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, blanked her mind and pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose.

This was it.

She waddled towards the door because she felt disconnected with her body, like the bond between her mind, body and soul was a bit hazy and her body didn't know how to maneuver itself without her mind and soul guiding it. So she waddled out the door, flipping her ponytail over her shoulder and staring at the sleeping streets with a blank expression on her face.

It was passed midnight, around two in the morning, at the very least, and every sane villager was asleep. Sasuke had left, earlier in the day, once he had been satisfied with all she ate and how the color came back to her face and that she'd stared him in the eye as they talked about stupid things—one worded replies from either of them, so it was more of a game than anything else—and then he'd held her three fingers, the way she always did when she was in that rare place in her mind where she needed the sense of security of an older brother.

And Naruto was villages and trees and an entire forest away and while they were blood-related Karin would forever feel a closer bond with Sasuke. And the way he'd mimicked her thing, her finger holding… It was like a jolt, like that strike of adrenaline given to the shinobi that were floating their way to Limbo on their journey to Death's Door. It was a reminder that life didn't wait for anyone and she needed to keep up or she'd be left behind.

And Karin was hurting—_god_, how she was hurting—but she needed to keep going, hold hands with the acute pain that wished to drown her… And move on.

She walked with her arms around herself, steps slow and uneven. She wasn't afraid of the dark and this was not the first time she disrupted its silent, lonely dance. Years ago, when Taka still existed and were as rogue as rogue could be, she'd get out of her sleeping back while the others slept and she'd walked through the trees.

It was a stupid thing to do, really, and she knew it was. And she also knew that there was a high possibility that her then-teammates knew she did it often. But Karin was _such_ a difficult person and she needed space, she was in constant need of gathering herself so she could keep her facades going. She didn't know why she kept them, anymore, now that she'd found a home and a circle of friends she felt were family; old habits die hard, they say and it was so true.

And if she ever threw her mask on the table and allowed everyone to see just how weak she actually was, she'd have Sasuke taking care of her in his weird aloof way, Naruto worrying in an entirely different village, Sakura mothering her, the disrespect and disorder from the people at the hospital and, some day, the inability to keep order in the penitentiary.

There was too much to lose, to unwind so selfishly. And Karin was as selfish as selfish could be, but she cared enough about everyone that's become her extended family. She didn't want to put them through that.

So she walked down the streets of Otogakure, her ponytail swaying behind her, like a pendulum, and tried to find her center.

In her center were haughty smirks, steely green eyes, bear hugs and rare late night gossips over three bottles of sake. In her center were all the hardships she had gone through in her years, losing a home and losing another home and finding a place and something she's good at no matter how _wrong_ and _sick_ it had been. In her center was a memory of meeting a boy she had thought she loved, never thinking about how flighty and fake she actually was, meeting another boy that ground her the wrong way in all the right places and meeting another boy who smiled at her with a smile that promised everything would be okay.

In her center were near death experiences, being betrayed, crying with an enemy-not-enemy and being interrogated. In her center was finding out of her nearly extinct clan, wiped out by some past she didn't know and never met the mark to be catalogued. And finally, in her center were the feelings of letting go, growing up, being good, living and not being okay but being close to it.

And somewhere in there… Somewhere in there, woven in between all the little bits that defined her, were violet eyes and sharp teeth and a whispered slur against the sensitive part under her ear—a load of promises never to be met.

And just like that Karin let out a breath and tried to talk to her body, let it know that everything will be fine again, that it needed to let everything go. She didn't know what she was doing, or why she was talking to herself as if she was disconnected or an entirely different person. It was weird and scary but… She felt like this was something she had to do.

She needed to tell her body that it was high time to get the show on the road. Two and a half days of self-loathing and self-pitying was long enough. It was time.

A pain appeared—it felt like it was everywhere but she knew it was her womb, the pain strong enough to echo and reverberate through the rest of her body. It felt like being stabbed continuously and Karin stopped walking, doubling over and groaning to herself.

She must be doing something right.

For the past two days she'd felt something along these lines, less painful—duller and almost nonexistent, like a stomachache. She'd genuinely thought it was just hunger, since she had refused to eat a single thing in her dark moment.

But now…

Karin gasped, standing straight and rocking her hips to match the stabbing feeling of what she could make out to be her first contractions.

Her body was responding to her, agreeing that it was time to let go.

"Fucking shit," she moaned, to herself, once the pain became close to unbearable.

She hurried back home, not wanting to double over in pain in the middle of the street and pass out, be found by the villagers and alert Sasuke or Sakura. She banged herself against the wall as she shakily opened the door, slamming herself against it as she closed it up behind her. She gasped for air, letting out a mangled sob as she slid down towards the ground.

"This is bullshit," she sobbed, holding herself and wishing the pain away. "I'm sorry… I'm so, so sorry."

Maybe she should have let Sakura take care of it; get it over and done with so she didn't have to live through this any longer. Maybe this decision, this _stupid_ decision weighed by the attachment to a fetus—to her baby—was the wrong one. Irresponsible and totally selfish.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, crying and fogging up her glasses. "I'm so sorry."

Karin attempted to stand back up, banging herself against the furniture as she tried to find her way to the bathroom.

Something happened, halfway there, at the very entrance of the bathroom. Liquid flowed down her legs and when she looked down, mouth agape and eyes wide, she realized it was water and blood.

Her water broke.

Karin gasped and curled into herself.

Her water broke.

The pain subsided a bit and Karin spent the rest of the night bleeding, getting closer to that thing called closure.

* * *

"Alright," Sakura began, taking her haori off and gently setting it over the lowest branch of one of the trees. She flexed her arms, rolling her head and cracking the kinks out of her neck as she slowly began to fix her fingerless gloves, adjusting them and tightening them around her hands.

"Medical ninjutsu, shrimp, is just as deadly as it is harmless," she began, placing her hands on her hips. "That's why it's so beautiful—the same thing that can save lives, can take it right away in a blink of an eye. Now, what I'm about to teach you is the most basic combat form. You've seen it, haven't you?"

Minori nodded his head.

"Good."

She walked over to one of the four dummies, tilting her head and wondering how angry Sasuke'd get if she destroyed one. She _did_ move a lot of junk from a junkyard that she deemed good enough for Minori to practice on. Like an old desk—those thick kind, too, so it was perfect—a table and a lot of things along those line. But those were for Minori and she wanted to keep most intact for him.

"So," she went on, perkily. "Most call this little technique 'superhuman strength' and I don't correct them coz it sounds super cool. But it's not superhuman strength, shrimp. It's goddamn good chakra control concentrated on your hand or leg and precise timing. My Shishou developed this for us medical shinobi to both intimidate the enemy when we're trying to heal our comrades, as well as to fight. One good punch in the right place could kill someone, yeah?"

Sakura turned towards Minori, watching him watch her with fascinated eyes, drinking in each of her movements with his hands fisted at his sides. She grinned, turning to face the defenseless dummy with a wicked excitement in her eyes; years may have passed but it hadn't changed the satisfaction of breaking things with just one punch.

She called a good amount of chakra onto her hand, letting it glow a mint-green as she fisted it tightly. And just like that, after making sure Minori was watching carefully, she ran towards her target and let go of her chakra just as her fist made impact with the dummy.

It cracked into pieces, splinters raining all around her and prickling at her skin with paper-thin scratches.

As the disarray settled onto the ground, all that was left of the dummy was a broken stump where it had once stood. Sakura turned around, staring at Minori as he watched everything with wide, excited eyes.

"Your task," she said, running a chakra coated finger along her little scratches and healing them away, "is to be able to manipulate the chakra, become one with it until summoning it is not even a conscious act, but a something you do as a washed out memory, something stamped and engraved inside you where you don't even have to _think_ about it, but just _do it_.

"Is that clear, Minori?"

"Yes, sensei."

"Good."

She grabbed her haori and slid it on. "I'll see to it that I make time to see your progress sometime in the week."

Sakura began to walk away, then, pausing when she was right next to her precious student and ruffling his hair in an affectionate gesture. Then, she was gone.

* * *

Sasuke walked into her apartment around noon, there was a paper bag in his hand with a take-out bowl of ramen for her because Karin was stupid and she needed to be watched as she ate. He got it, really—she was in a bad place. Sasuke knew a lot about bad places. And he also knew there had to be insistent poking and prodding to get the person out before they sank in too deep.

Sasuke knew all that too well.

Karin was walking out of her room just as he closed the door behind him, towel-drying her hair and her steps really slow. Her eyes landed on him and she didn't look all too surprised at his presence; she almost looked a mixture of relieved and amused and, honestly, after how he saw her when he found her bleeding on the ground… Amused and sarcastic is more than welcomed.

They had a rocky history, his stupid best friend and him, and he's seen her crumpled on the ground in her own blood because he'd put her there in that situation… But three days ago… That had been entirely different. That had been a complete mindfuck to him.

Karin's not supposed to look like that.

"It's written in the books that Uzumaki love ramen." He lifted the bag up, dropping it onto her hands when she begrudgingly extended her arms out.

"Great," she drawled, "is it at least miso?"

"Of course."

Sasuke walked over to the couch, taking a seat and watching as Karin followed in her slow waddle. She set the bag down on the coffee table, tearing it open and picking out the take-out cup and removing the lid. Sasuke observed her from under his messy forelocks, watched as she played with the noodles, using her chopsticks to move them back and forth in her attempts to soak them in the broth before taking her first bite.

She looked different.

Not better, because Sasuke didn't think she'd ever be 'better'. But she looked… Alive, at the very least. She didn't look like she was one step away from just giving up and dying. There was color on her cheeks and her eyes didn't look dull and dead and she was up without having him pull her out of bed by force. And she was _eating_.

Karin could lie to herself all she wanted but she wouldn't ever be able to lie to him—he knew a lot of things she thought he didn't; he knew she was quick to give up, he knew Suigetsu snuck into the village, he knew she was stupidly in love with him and he knew even with all that she was still one of the six strongest girls he's ever met.

She wouldn't give up too easily.

"Why are you here?" she asked, when she was about done with her meal.

"Check if you're still alive."

"Che," she snorted, looking away from him, thrusting her chin up in the air.

Indeed, he'd have trouble concentrating on his documents and tasks, sending teams on missions and trying to get another good one for his team. He had neglected his brats in favor of making sure she was alright and he knew Eiko was probably furious beyond belief but… "I'd never hear the end of it from the Dobe if I allowed you to die."

"Oh, please," she scoffed.

She turned to eye him with fake disdain and Sasuke raised his eyebrow at her, throwing an arm over the couch's back, the other one resting on its arm.

"Have you changed your binds?" she questioned.

"I don't think that's very important," he drawled, rolling his eye.

"You haven't, you idiot. Come here, I'm going to change them before you get an infection. What am I even going to do with you; you're worrying about me but you don't worry about yourself. Stay right there, I'm going to get my kit and—"

"Karin?"

He shifted to look over the couch, watching as she gripped the counter like a lifeline, her other arm around herself as she breathed hard.

"What—"

"I—I'm fine. I'm fine, don't get up." She groaned, standing straight with all the strength she could manage. "I'm fine. Just… Contractions. I'm good."

Sasuke stood up and walked over to her, observing her every move, the way her chest rose and fell with her harsh breathing and the way she hugged herself almost protectively. She was glaring at him because he didn't do as she said. He grabbed her wrist and led her to the couch, pushing her down so she'd sit.

"I'll change my bindings by myself. Just… Relax or something."

"Oh please," she scoffed, gulping for air. "You'd poke your own eye out. I'm _fine_ I can—"

"I'll get Sakura to do it, then. Karin, stop trying to change the focus onto me. Take care of yourself first."

She huffed; hissing as another wave of contractions came crashing down. Sasuke stared at her, wondering if there was anything that could be done to get it over with as fast as possible, but he knew that there really wasn't. He sighed, placing a hand on her head and closing his eye. "Get some rest, Karin."

.

.

.


	13. trēdecim

**dedication: **to Rhea, Paige, TK, Sonya, Daisy & Chloe (Holy Trinity), Luce and Lilithkiss  
**summary: **Being a leader is akin to being a phoenix. You're always rising from the ashes.  
**notes: **Continuation of the last chapter.

* * *

**「****13****」**

He curled his hand into a fist, the split skin on his knuckles stretching and burning, blood oozing down his curled fingers and onto the grass. Minori's forehead was coated with sweat, messy hair sticking to the back of his neck and tangling with his lashes. He breathed from his parted lips, dark eyes set on the dent on the tree, blood smeared on its surface.

He wasn't measuring his chakra correctly; he couldn't even destroy his targets. He could barely cause a solid dent, maybe crack them if he used a bit more force—but there wasn't a big explosion, like with Sakura's demonstration. He was terrified to even _try_ to use enough chakra to cause damage; watching his sensei was exhilarating and all, but it was completely different to try and do it himself.

Minori sighed, looking down at his bloodied knuckles.

Another round, then.

* * *

Sakura looked up in time to watch him come in, one hand stuffed in the pockets of his dark nin-pants, the other holding a first aid kit. His eye was downcast and his hair was messy and sticking up at odd angles like he'd run his hand through it countless of times and messed up the shagginess. He looked rumpled, brow furrowed in what looked like worry, lips tilted downwards.

It was around two in the afternoon and she'd just dismissed the Oto medic-nins in training. With every day that passed, they grew more knowledgeable in the field and Sakura could already pick out who was going to be better at what; their chakra control as outstanding as it should be for a medical shinobi, and their concentration impenetrable when needed—or when they were yelled at.

At this rate, they'd be ready to go out and help in the hospital and help train more potential med-nins on their own and Sakura would return back home to Konoha. Except not really, Sakura grinned to herself as she pictured the annoyed faces of the few students that gave her a hard time, training in the medical field took more than a month and a half—perhaps their training wouldn't last the two years hers did, but it was surely going to take four months at best.

Sasuke set the first aid kit down on the desk, next to her, and brought her out of her thoughts. Sakura jolted, a bit, and looked towards him, an eyebrow raised in question.

"I was with Karin, earlier today," he said, his brow still furrowed and his eye staring out the window. "She was having contractions."

"That's normal," she said, nodding, glancing at the kit again. "Even if she miscarries her baby, her body is still going to go through a normal labor."

His brow furrowed further, lips tilted downwards in dissatisfaction. "That's a lot of pain."

"Being a woman isn't easy." She shifted in her seat, leaning back and observing him, willing him to turn to look towards her and when he did she asked, "What's the kit for?"

Sasuke sighed, turning so he could lean against the edge of her desk, arms crossed in front of his chest and his flak-jacket making sounds of protest at his movements. He didn't answer her question right away. Sakura didn't take notice, in favor of getting caught up admiring just how _peaceful_ Sasuke looked when he was this up close.

Worried, he could be. Annoyed, he could be—he could even get downright _furious_ but there was this wall of peace that surrounded him that Sakura knew, for a fact, had never been there when they were younger. Sasuke would always be an angry person and she knew it, but it broke her heart in the most beautiful way to see him so calm, shoulders relaxed, facial features light and smooth and body language so readable.

She smiled, leaning forwards and shortening the gap between them.

"She reminded me that I hadn't cleaned my eye or changed the bindings," Sasuke said, tilting his head to look at her. "Stupid girl, I swear. Worrying about me when she should be worrying about herself."

Sakura's smile broadened.

"I told her I'd get you to do it—"

"You mean, you told her you'd do it yourself and she said you'd kill yourself before getting it done right."

He glowered at her and Sakura laughed as she stood from her seat, pulling the first aid kit closer towards her with one hand and gently pushing Sasuke back with the other. He continued to scowl at her even as he lifted himself onto the desk, sitting down and reaching towards the wraps covering his eye.

Sakura smacked his hand away, her eyes growing sharp. "No, you jerk, your hands are dirty. Give me a second."

She disappeared and returned a few seconds later, drying her hands with a paper towel and setting it aside as soon as she was right in front of him. Sakura pursed her lips, placing a hand on one of his knees and moving to stand in between his legs, her eyes observing the neat wrappings around his left eye.

"Okay," she said, more to herself than to him, her hand moving up to his thigh, the other one feathering the bindings and admiring Karin's handy work. She patted his thigh before lifting her hand to join her other one in untying the wraps, "Let's get this started then."

"You're annoying." Sasuke sighed, closing his eye and relaxing.

Sakura scoffed, rolling the bindings up into a tight ball and throwing it onto the trashcan by her desk. She paused, furrowing her brow and staring at him without having half of his face bandaged up; she reached over, finger-combing his messy hair, fingertips ghosting over the sensitive skin that hid under the bands along with his ineffective eye.

"Open your eyes," she asked, softly, taking a step back and observing him.

When he opened them, he looked like the boy she had fallen in love with all those years ago; dark eyes, dark lashes, dark hair and pale skin. Without the bindings around the left side of his face, he still looked untouched by sin and sacrifice—still looked like he was young and hadn't tainted his hands with blood. She smiled as he raised an eyebrow at her, knowing he could only really see her with his right eye.

"What?"

"Just reminiscing," she said, moving away from him and heading out of the classroom.

She returned with a bowl filled with warm water and her other hand dipping a clean rag into it. "Don't overexert that eye, Sasuke, or it'll start bleeding again."

"Why do you think my body rejected my brother's eyes?"

Sakura set the bowl down next to him, picking up the rag and wringing the excess water out of it. She turned to face him, standing in between his legs, and leaning forwards to begin the cleaning procedure. His question was a very good one and she wished she had the answer for him. But she had little to no information to the secrets of the Uchihas, let alone the prized possession that were their eyes. And not only that… The human body was a mystery in itself and no one would ever really be able understand why it did the things it did.

So she told him as much.

"You overused your Mangekyo during the fight against Madara." But Sakura knew enough that, after transplanting Itachi's eyes, something as overusing the Mangekyo shouldn't have had such an affect. She pursed her lips, saying, "And not only that, but the eyes are so delicate; transplanting them in general is something that won't always work out. _Especially_ if the one doing the transplanting isn't a medic."

Sasuke grunted, trying to lean away as she began to clean his cheekbone.

"Besides," she said, setting the rag down. "I wouldn't say your body rejected your brother's eyes, if the other one is still being one hundred percent useful, right?"

He stared at her and she spared him a quick wink, opening the medical kit and grabbing a fresh ball of bindings.

"Kakashi's body didn't reject Obito's eye."

"Because he rarely used it," she replied, leaning forwards as she began to wrap his eye up. "Kakashi-sensei always had it covered up with his hitai-ate, remember?"

Sasuke grunted, again.

"Anyway, I bet you're still an exceptional shinobi, even with just one eye."

He stared at her, then, looking away and allowing the bands to loosen and fall onto his shoulders. His brow furrowed, as if deep in thought; rolling ideas around in his head and trying to make sense of them. He licked his lower lip, leaning back in his seat and his hands supporting his weight as he said, "Itachi was sick…"

Sasuke rarely spoke about his brother. He was a bit more open to the topic than he was when they were thirteen, let alone when they were sixteen; but now if asked, he would answer with a straight face or with a thoughtful hint in his tone. There was no animosity or regret, anymore. Just acceptance and the faintest trace of loss.

"Sick?"

"He was dying, in that last fight we had." He pressed his lips together, eyes closed as if reliving the memory. "He'd cough out blood a lot… It's like he was dying anyway and fighting me only speeded up the process."

Sakura bit at the inside of her cheek, hoping that these thoughts weren't tormenting Sasuke the way she knew they've always had. It was so hard to see one thing on the outer exterior of someone, but know that inside they could be feeling something entirely different. And Sakura didn't want him to hurt anymore; it's been close to eleven years of hurt and anger.

Sasuke deserved happiness, after everything.

"He was sick," he repeated and Sakura's thoughts about her forever boy paused as it hit her.

She could be wrong but she could also be right. Hypothesizing was the best part of being a medic, after all! The saddest part of hypothesizing over something like Sasuke's useless left eye, if anything, was that there would never be a definite answer. Working on the human eye was something beyond a challenge and though Sakura loved challenges she would never risk Sasuke's health, let alone plunge herself into something like an actual Uchiha eye.

Hypothesizing was the only thing she could do; the state of Sasuke's eye would forever remain a mystery unanswered. Life always threw those around, anyway, right?

Sakura pursed her lips, again, trying to form out the words circling in her mind.

"Itachi was sick, you say…" She furrowed her brow. "Then whatever disease Itachi carried was probably… Maybe it was cancer…"

"What?"

She looked up at him, pulling the bindings from his shoulder and beginning to wrap them around his eye again. "If Itachi had cancer—whatever type of cancer it might have been—then, a small collection of cells metastasized onto your eye. Add that with you overusing it with the Mangekyo and Amaterasu… It's very plausible that it's where your body's rejection stemmed from. Your body is going to protect you as best as it can, you know. So if these cells metastasized onto your—Itachi's—eye, then your body rejected it to protect you. It's a possibility, anyway."

Sasuke was quiet for a very, very long time and Sakura finished her work in silence. She sighed, once done, dropping her hands to rest on his thighs and leaning her forehead against his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Sasuke."

"Why?"

She shook her head, eyes closed as she tried to match her breathing to his. "It's like you always get the short end of the stick. I'm sorry."

He scoffed but he didn't push her away, taking a deep breath and exhaling it all out slowly. They stayed like that for a bit and Sakura smiled, a bit sadly, as she opened her eyes and stared at the first aid kit that lay next to him, on the table, still opened and with the bowl filled with water sitting on top of it.

"I'm fine with my life," he said lowly, as if more to himself than to her. She managed to catch it anyway.

* * *

Minori let out a long sigh as he crouched down in the middle of the training grounds, breathing hard from in between his teeth. He looked down at his fingers, carefully watching the way they twitched and the way blood oozed out slowly, thickly. If he truly lived up to his medical training, thus far, then he was a little more than correct in calling out a sprain on each of his fingers. His middle finger looked broken, actually.

He sighed again, easing down to the ground and getting ready to work on healing them.

At some point, during the day, Minori had managed to coat his hand with enough chakra to cause damage. Then, the problem with precise timing came. He either unleashed it too early and caused his hand to collide with the hard surface without anything in between them to save his knuckles and fingers from immediate pain, or he unleashed it too late which… Gave him the same results.

His left hand glowed green as he began to mend the fractures on his bones and the cells of his skins to close the wounds on his knuckles.

The sky was slowly growing dark and, soon, Minori wasn't going to have any kind of lighting other than the stars and the moon's glow. He'd spent the entire day at work, he reminded himself, lifting his gaze to stare at all the mess he made. Almost all the surfaces he'd punched were smeared with his blood.

He sighed, once again, feeling his head pulse with exhaustion and his stomach clench with hunger.

He was just about done when he heard footsteps nearing him; slow and lazy, preferring to kick up dirt and grass than lift their foot up with each stride. Minori furrowed his brow and watched as Eiko appeared from the shadows, her hair tied back and wearing her civilian attire. Her eyes locked with his, immediately, that permanent displeased expression on her pretty face.

Minori blinked, parting his lips to speak but she scoffed at him, crossing her arms in front of her chest and looked away.

"I lost in a round of rock, paper, scissors," she explained. "Looking for you wasn't even hard. Now come on, we're going out for some barbecue."

"Give me a minute," he murmured, digging into his pouch and taking out a small ball of wraps.

Eiko took a couple of steps closer, her dark brown eyes observing the mess he'd made during his training session. Her gaze was calculating, a thin eyebrow raised and her lips set in a neutral frown.

"What the hell happened here?"

Minori looked up at her amidst wrapping the white bindings around his right hand. "I… Was training…?"

"What kind of training is this?"

"…Medical…? Combat, I guess." He furrowed his brow, cutting the wraps and stuffing what was left of the small ball back into his pouch. "Chakra coated punches."

Eiko turned to stare at him, her overgrown forelocks entangling with her lashes as they fell over her eyes with her movement. They remained like that, with Minori standing awkwardly as Eiko scrutinized him with an eyebrow raised and her hands on her hips and something like an uninterested scowl on her face.

Minori didn't even know there was such an expression until he met Eiko.

"Che," she scoffed as she whirled away, her magenta ponytail whipping at the air. "Let's just go get dinner. You look like you're going to pass out, pipsqueak."

He opened his mouth but then quickly closed it. What could he even reply to that? Sass wasn't his specialty and the last thing he wanted was to get someone like Mizushima Eiko angry; in his weakened state, let alone lack of training in the fighting department, she'd easily beat him. And they already went through that; if he was going to engage in a rematch with Eiko, it'd be when he was up to par with her skills so he wouldn't be beaten in less than five minutes. So Minori sighed for the fourth time that evening and followed her into the shadows and out the training grounds.

* * *

Steam curled around the bathroom, hazing everything up and fogging her glasses. Karin sat in the tub, fully clothed and hugging herself, welcoming the light sting of the warm water against her flesh. It was by far more tolerable than the waves of contractions she was going through.

She had been fine… She had been better than fine, today had been the best day she'd had in weeks. She'd spent it sitting on her couch, drinking tea and reading old scrolls and textbooks. She'd walked around her house, cleaning it as best as she could and doing basic things. She had felt fine—great, like she was back to herself or at least was close to it.

Then, around six-thirty in the evening the contractions came again. Longer and white-hot with pain. Karin had nothing more than to just sit in her tub filled with hot water, arch her back when she'd feel the waves hit her insides and bite her lower lip until it bled to keep herself from crying.

Was this punishment, she'd wondered. Was this her sentence for all the horror she'd watched and let happen, for all the screams she'd laughed at, for all the blood she'd tainted herself with? Was this her penalty for all the poor souls she'd experimented on, allowed them to bite into her skin and get her chakra to heal them just to do it over?

If so, she accepted it.

If so, she'd always accept it but _fuck_ if it didn't hurt.

Her lower back was on fire and her womb felt like it was collapsing.

All Karin knew was that it was happening. She didn't know how and she didn't know if it was right at that very moment, but it was happening—this was the road to closure, this was the path to her short pregnancy ending and there was no turning back. Just pain and heartbreak.

She bent forward, gasping for air and sliding her shorts off because suddenly everything felt awful against her skin. She threw her wet clothes out the tub and curled into herself, feeling the most intense pain she could ever feel.

And then it happened.

Just like that, a one-two-three occurrence. Karin broke down, then, holding her dead baby in her hands, eyes clenched tight because everything _hurt_ in an entirely new way. She couldn't even look at her because a wave of something inexplicable consumed her—this dead baby, this dead little fetus curled up in her hand… she had been her baby. She had been alive, she had been inside.

The door to the bathroom opened.

* * *

Cliché came in the form of always coming back because something intense was there. Cliché came in the form of refusing to acknowledge it and act a clueless fool because it was easier. It came in the form of lying to himself well enough that he actually believed he didn't care about her, despite sneaking into the village to come and see her.

They were a cliché, he knew, and he found it absolutely ridiculous to the point where he sometimes lashed out, at the thought of it, and went in search of a good fight to let out all his pent up frustration because _why now_? Why did it happen when he was so close to his lifelong goal he could actually taste it in his mouth, actually feel it get caught in the hollow of his throat?

Why was it that when his fingertips grazed the title of leader of the Seven Swordsmen, he had to fucking fall in love?

But it didn't matter because he had made his choice and now he was just killing time until it all finally—fucking finally—settled in.

Suigetsu walked around her house, violet eyes observing everything and drinking it in. There was an annoying voice inside his head that reminded him a lot about Juugo—it kept saying that all this would be his, too, if he actually had a heart inside him. But Suigetsu visibly grinned at the thought; did this stupid voice not know he was known as the Demon's Second Coming? That his ways were too hostile and too blood-thirsty for him to _ever_ settle down?

Settling down, to Suigetsu, came in the form of a hideout somewhere in Kirigakure, controlling the rest of the new Swordsmen with strings of a puppet. Settling down meant taking jobs and taking heads, cleaning blood off of his sword before going to bed and smelling like death and fear.

There was no room for Karin, despite if he secretly wanted there to be.

He walked towards the bathroom, pausing as he listened to Karin's broken sobs through the door. Suigetsu furrowed his brow, hand curling around the knob and slowly turning it, slowly pushing the door open and stepping into the foggy room.

She sat in the tub, hair frizzy and the ends drenched and stringy, naked as a jaybird and curled into herself, holding her hands close to her chest and crying. She was crying—_sobbing_ as if something so important to her was taken and there was absolutely no way of getting it back. Crying like a baby would, with no filter and no restraint; no holding back, every single tear and every broken sob escaping past her lips.

It froze Suigetsu in his stance, froze the blood flowing in his veins and made his mind throb with shock and confusion.

This wasn't the Karin he remembered—this wasn't the Karin he _knew_.

Karin was snarky and strong—survival instincts at its finest. She held barriers up to separate her from everything else and she absolutely never ever cried the way she was crying right then. Karin punched and kicked and put anyone down with a few harsh words and a twisted smirk but she never ever looked broken the way she looked right then.

Suigetsu took careful steps forwards, his brow furrowed and his throat dry.

That's when he saw what she was holding—the little thing curled in her hands, the blood tinting the water of the bath red, Karin's crying… Suigetsu felt dizzy for two seconds before he just swallowed it all up, taking a seat on the closed toilet and observing her and… and… And it.

"Karin?"

She froze at his voice, as if finally realizing she wasn't alone and the look she gave him when she met his gaze made Suigetsu think he wasn't supposed to see this. He wasn't supposed to know about this.

And somewhere in his mind he went crazy. Somewhere in his mind he was ten different kinds of furious, ready to argue and hit her with his cruelest words but he pushed it all back, swallowed back all the words because what did he care, right? Why would he have cared? What difference would it all have made, if his decisions were made and this would have been the result either way?

He exhaled slowly and left the bathroom. Suigetsu supposed she needed some time alone and he… Could give her that. He could give her all of that.

* * *

"Well, well, well. Look who remembered about us!"

Sasuke supposed he deserved that. Not that he had forgotten about his students, or anything like that; he had just been unable to fit them with everything that was going on. With Karin and his document signing—no one could understand how much he hated document signing—and Sakura… His students had fallen to last priority and Sasuke kind of kicked himself for allowing that to happen.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair and giving Eiko a pointed glance.

"I haven't forgotten about you," he replied, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "I have been terribly busy and, unfortunately, unable to come and see you. I assume you have all kept up with your training?"

"Yes, sensei," Ryuu answered for the three, grinning in that way of his. "Is Karin-san alright now?"

Sasuke grunted because he wasn't even sure Karin would ever really be okay after everything that happened to her and he didn't exactly know how he could say that to his students. Seriously, the shit Karin got herself into—if she wasn't such a reliable attribute to his ruling of Otogakure, he'd send her back to Konoha and have Naruto get his head smashed with migraines from dealing with all her problems.

He shook his head, looking down at his three students and observing them with that annoying hint of fondness that crept up on him when he wasn't paying attention. Eiko had grown a bit more docile since his team first met—still a spitfire that gave him a headache, but a bit more passive nonetheless—and Yukio was a bit more outspoken and Ryuu kept them all together.

When did this happen and why didn't he see it until right then?

Sasuke smirked, taking a few steps back and cracking the kinks out of his neck.

"Alright," he drawled, feigning to be uninterested. "As my apology, we'll have a spar. The three of you against me; I'll even have my eyes closed for this one."

"Are you belittling us, sensei?!"

"Take it how you want it," he droned, smirking and closing his eye.

He heard Ryuu scoff as he said, "Alright, guys! Formation K—go!"

* * *

Sakura sat on the couch in her and Minori's apartment, legs criss-cross as she scribbled some notes onto a worn out notebook. Her class was fending for themselves, creating poison in Otogakure's hospital's greenhouse and meeting back with her the following day to test their creations.

Minori had left earlier in the morning to continue his training, his hands wrapped up with binds and his messy hair pulled back in a messy little ponytail at the base of his neck.

She had the apartment to herself and she used it to make notes on all the observations she'd made during her training with the class of Oto-nins as well as Minori's slow and quiet process throughout his training—and, oh, what a beautifully quiet process it was, much like everything about Minori; slow and quiet.

Naturally, she would keep all her annotations to herself; but Sakura had always loved being able to s_ee_ things in front of her. And she kind of had a dream of writing a medical scroll for any and all medical shinobi in the future. And what better way to achieve that dream than by starting with notes?

She sighed, smiling down at her messy scrawling and then looked up when her door was opened, green eyes growing wide as Karin walked in, her eyes puffy and pink and cheeks glistening with tear-trails. She cradled a bundle in her arms and Sakura's heart sank to her stomach as she added two and two together.

Her heart cracked at the sight before her, moving her stuff aside and standing up to wrap an arm around Karin and leading her to the couch.

"It happened," Karin said, sniffing and refusing to allow any more tears to trickle down her cheeks. "It happened. Everything is… It's all over."

Sakura bit at her lower lip and nodded.

"I feel empty," Karin confessed, adjusting the bundle in her arm. "And a bit lost."

"It's okay," Sakura soothed.

Karin shook her head. "No… No its not. I just… Want closure. I want to bury her."

"Okay," Sakura said. "Let's bury her, then."

It took her a moment but Karin stood from the couch, knees wobbly and composure threatening to crumble. But Karin wasn't like that, Sakura knew. Karin hated looking weak and inferior around others and no matter how much she was hurting—and Sakura could only imagine how much pain she was going through—she wasn't going to allow herself to cry while they were together.

Karin led her towards the cemetery. The walk was quiet; it wasn't filled with tension, so much as it was just _quiet_ and buzzing and it made Sakura uncomfortable in a sad way. It made her sad because death and cemeteries always made her forget how to breathe. Karin didn't pay attention to anyone that turned her way or hummed a hello at her and Sakura smiled at them apologetically.

But everyone was used to Karin's ways—she was a difficult woman and everyone was fine with it.

Walking through the gates of the cemetery way on the other side of Oto, Karin then led her up a small hill and under the shade of a big apple tree. Sakura bit her lip and nodded her head when a gravedigger approached them. Sakura watched the man dig the small hole with a shovel while Karin faced away, staring back at the village, back stiff and shoulders squared.

"Thank you," Sakura whispered as the gravedigger nodded, taking a moment before handing her the shovel after Sakura made the gesture for him to leave it with her. She knew Karin would want privacy.

Karin fixed the bundle in her arms before sinking down into her knees and gently placing it into the hole. Sakura watched her gulp, brow furrowed and teeth worrying at her lower lip again. Slowly, she began to close the hole up, pausing every once in a while to observe Karin's expression.

"Suigetsu found out."

"How?" Sakura asked, patting and smoothing the dirt up.

Karin shrugged, "He snuck into my house right after it happened."

"Where is he now?"

"He left before I woke up."

"Did you guys… Talk?"

"No." Karin stood to her feet, hands clenched at her side. "I don't think we ever will—I hope not. We're not that kind of people."

"Karin…"

"It's fine."

Sakura watched her, the way her hair looked like blood under the sun as a gentle breeze blew by. There was steel in Karin's wine-red eyes, lips pressed into a thin line and jaw set.

"It's time to move on; it happened… I feel empty and horrible inside but that's it. It's done." She took a deep breath. "It's done."

.

.

.


End file.
